Be Careful What You Wish For
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: Naruto's had enough of Sasuke. Not thinking of the consequences, he makes a wish on a shooting star..... Naruto harem consiting of Sakura, Haku, and POSSIBLY Ino!
1. The Wish

**NOTE: TAKES PLACE JUST BEFORE THE ZABUZA ARC. AND NARUTO MAY OR MAY NOT BE REFFERED TO AS SASUKE, SINCE THEY'RE GONNA BE SWAPPING BODIES I DON'T KNOW YET. AND NARUTO WILL HAVE ALL OF SASUKE'S SKILLS AND ABILITIES, INCLUDING... (DRAMATIC MUSIC) THE SHARINGAN! AND SASUKE MIGHT, I SAID _MIGHT _HAVE THE KYUUBI!**

Naruto crawled into bed, the tears dripping from his face as he stared up at the ceiling. His face as broken, his voice laced with terrible sadness and loneliness. "Why? Why does Sasuek get everything he wants? He gets all the girls, he gets all the atttention, and STILL he treats everyone like dirt. ESPECIALLY me."

He angrily bit his lip, drawing a small amount of blood as he choked back a sob, his voice incredibly lonely now. "I wish I had a life. A life like that. No more Kyuubi, no more being beaten, I just want a good life like that." A small smile enetere his voice now as he pulled the white sheets over him, his gaze focused on the starry sky. His voice was bleary as he went on. Now he was getting tired.

"If _I _was Sasuke, I'd be plenty grateful for what everyone gave me, and I would _definitely _treat Sakura-chan better than he does."

His eyes narrowed now, anger coursing through him at how ungrateful the young Uchiha was. _'He acts all high and migthy, treats everyone like crap, he's such a... such...a... AGH! I HATE HIM!'_ _If I was him_,_ I'd even treat all of his fangirls nicely! I'd be the most popular...guy...around..._

He sleepily stared into the sky, noticing a shooting star as he did. He yawned once more, closing his eyes as he murmured out his words, his eyes closing fully as he drifted off to sleep:

"I hope...ya...heard...my...wish...

--

What Naruto didn't know, was that the 'star' was no falling star at all. It actually was a winged man, shrouded in white robes, a yellow halo atop his blond hair. The man looked down upon the sleeping genin, and mouth curled up slightly in a sad smile. You see, Naruto's wish _had_ been heard by someone. Someone who cared for him very, very much. And that someone was about to give the boy what he wanted, and then some.

The angelic figure slowly descended to the window, and silently climbed through it, his white feathered wings folding agaisnt his back as he did so. He took a long look at the boy, and raised a hand in his direction, the smile now happy as he ruffled Naruto's blond hair, his blue eyes crinkling in a smile.

Then, a bluish white substance exited Naruto's mouth, and the boy stopped breathing. The angel gestured forward, and the spirit lowered itself into the palm of his hand, resting itself there. He spoke, his deep voice silently echoing throughout the room as he looked down at the spirirt, which now resembled a ghost like version of Naruto.

"Do not worry my son. I will make up for leaving you all alone. I shall grant you your wish, and give you the life that you deserve. One free form endless suffering and rejection. I shall give you a wonderfully exciting life, one that you will trly not regret wishing for." Then his eyes narrowed and a nasty smile was on his face as he reached out, and seemingly grapsed at the air.

A moment later, a ghost like, sleeping verison spirit appeared in his hand, being held by the neck. The angel's sapphire eyes glared down at it in disgust, his voice as cold as ice as he spoke to the sleeping spirit, as he roughly shoved it into Naruto's body, sealing it in there for all eternity, ulike the nine tailed fox, who he also was removing from the body, yet leaving a fake seal in its place. "And as for you, YOU shall know what true suffering is. Let us see how YOU like it. For every day starting tomorrow, you wll suffer the torture that my son has experienced...for the rest of your miserable, wretched life."

With that, he spat on the ground, silently climbing out the window once more, and taking Naruto's spirit, as well as the Kyuubi's to a more...proprer body...

(Next morning)

Naruto blearily opned his eyes, and rolled out of the bed as his alarm clock went off. _'Ugh. Morning already? I don't wanna get up..._ He blearily reached around for it, and as soon as his hand touched the black box, the beeping stopped. Naruto sighed in relief, then his sleepy eyes snapped open as he realized something. _'Wait a sec. I don't have an alarm clock.'_

He wiped the gunk away from his eyes and cleared hsi vision as he looked around, and found that he wasn't in his one room, rundown apartment. In fact, he didn't know _where _he was. Rising from the bed, he looked to the left of the spacious room, and saw a clear transparent box.

Upon closer inspection, neatly stacked in the case, were; fire, water, and lightning jutsu scrolls neatly stacked on a shelf, and to the right, there was a brown dresser, on which rested a blakc framed photograph, containing a picture of what looked like a younger Sasuke, with his large clan family surrounding him, each of them wrapping their arms around him in a hug, except his elder brother Itachi, who Naruto, knew had killed almost all of the clan.

His eyes widened as he finally realized where he was. _'No way. I'm in...Sasuke's room?'_ Slowly, nervously, he approached a wall mirror, afraid to look into it, fearing that this was all a dream from which he would soon awake. He reached the mirrior, and ever so slowly, he looked into it, and mcuh to his disbelief, Sasuke stared out at him, clad in a muscle shirt and black shorts. Naruto's eyebrows shot up in stunned surprise, and so did Sasuke's.

Naruto grinned, daring to beleive what his eyes saw, and the mirror copied him once more. He chuckled now, running his hands through his now black hair, and spoke, Sasuke's voice in place of his own, laced with awe and disbelief. "It worked. My wish came true!" A wide smile lit his face as he did a little victory dance, amazed at how easily his new body moved.

Then his now coal black eyes focused on his ugly hairstyle. "Yuck. I am SO changing my look."

Naruto found the door to the bathroom, and grabbing a pair of scissors, and amazingly finding some hair dye, he set to work...

--

Naruto grinned at his new appearance, turning in the bathroom mirror to get a good look at his new look. "There we go! This is much better than the old look!" His hair was no longer black, he had used the hair dye to make it a dark navy blue color.

He no longer had the ugly duck butt hairstyle, he had chopped the hideous thing off, and now his hair hung over his ears, in a short hairstyle that reaced down to the sides of his face. He wore a red version of Sasuke's normal blue shirt, and wore black pants insteadof the usual white.

He raised his shirt, and his black eyes widened in surprise as he saw that the seal was gone, yet he still felt the prescence of the fox within him.'_Huh? He's still here? But no seal... Cool.'_

He grinned, liking this very much, gleefully rubbing his hands together at the thought of what Sasuke must be experiencing right now...


	2. The Question

Sasuke stared into the mirror, a dumbfounded expression on his face, Naruto's reflection staring back at him. _'What eh hell?! What am I doing in the dobe's-wait a second.'_Thinking that it was a Genjutsu, he smirked and formed his hands into the ram seal, blue chakra flowing through him. "Release."

He opened his eyes, and they were still the blue of Naruto. Dumbfounded, he blinked in the mirror, and Naruto blinked back. _'No. This can't be happening. I'm dreaming. Yeah, that's it. I'm asleep!'_

He grabbed his arm, giving himself a hard pinch, making his new voice, Naruto's voice, yelp in pain. He slapped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide as dinner plates. _'I'm not dreaming. I'm awake.' _In shock, he looked around the room, and was horrified to see the dismal state that Naruto lived in. He could tell that this was Naruto's apartment, judging by the hideous orange blue jumpsuits that were strewn about.

That, and the ramen cups on the table were a dead giveaway. No one else besides him, liked Ramen, and he was quite neat when he ate it. Then his now blue eyes widened as the realization hit him. His voice was filled with disbelief, as he looked at his hands, flexing and unlfexing them, realizing that he had swapped bodies with Naruto.

His roar of rage was heard throughout the village.

--

Naruto finished his ramen, then chuckled as the heard his old voice roar out in fury. "Looks like I was ri-AAGH!"

The reason for his startled shout was the pain that was burning through his stomach. He raised his red shirt, looking down at his toned stomach. No seal, but then what was hurting him? Again the wave of pain crashed down upon him, and he fell to his knees now, groaning in agony, his voice laced with pain as he squeezed his coal black eyes shut.

"What the heck is going on here? What's-AAGH-Happening to m-AAAAAAGH!" The pain continued to surge through him , and it felt like he was being burned from the inside out. He desperately staggered towards his bathroom, slamming the door open and staring in the mirror.

When he saw nothing wrong, the new Uchiha was VERY confused, until a familiar voice echoed in his head. **"You and your stupid wish." **Naruto's black eyes narrowed in anger as he assumed that the Kyuubi was doing this, then they were squeezed tightly shut, pain coursing though him once more.

His voice was angry and confused at the same time as he spoke, not understanding beast's reasons for doing this. "Stupid fox! What the hell are you doing?! Do you want to kill us both?!" Said fox snorted angrily, his own tone indicating that he was feeling this too.

**"Stupid Gaki! Do you think I'm doing this on purpose?! This-AAAGH- pain is happening-AAGH-beacuse our new body i-AAAAAGH- Used to my chakra yet! It's trying to adapt to my chakra network, and if this keeps up, it's gonna kill us both!" **Naruto's black eyebrows shot up at this. He did NOT want to die yet! "Hey! I am NOT gonna die now! I just got what I wanted! I'll MAKE the chakra fuse!"

Despite the fox's warning protests, Naruto's blue chakra poured through his veins, and he tried his best to ignore the excruciating agony as he did his best to fuse the chakra coils, the Kyuubi lending him a hand as well. Suddenly, the fox spoke up again, it's tone eager now.

**"It's working kit! The coils are almosst completely fused! Keep going, and we might just live through this!" **Naruto bit down on a towel, his hands placed firmly on the marble counter of the bathroom sink. He stared into the mirror, and watched in amazement as something strange happened.

His eyes, black orbs of coal, began to change. They slowly became red and slitted, then the slits disappeared. He watched in awe and confusion, as a black pupil emerged from each of his eyes, followed by a single black coma mark in above it in each eye. Then he had no more time for thought, as a gigantic wave of pain, worse than any other crashed down upon him, and he blacked out.

--

Sasuke angrily tore towards his home, wearing Naruto's trademark hideous jumpsuit. The former Uchiha grimaced as he saw several people point at him, and whisper under their breath. "Great. Now everyone thinks I'm Naruto. I have GOT to fix this before anything else- WHAT THE?!"

He skidded to a stop, as the angel appeared before him, blue eyes crinkled in amusement. "Hello, Sasuke. Where do you think you're going in such a rush? Are you running off to find Naruto?" The blond snarled at him, blue eyes and voice filled with anger as he determined that this ghostly figure had something to do with their swap.

"YOU! Did you put me in this body?! If you did, change me back right now! Or I- He was immediately silenced as the angel waved a hand, and the orange clad Sasuke found himself rooted to the spot, and deprived of his voice. Angry now, the man leaned down so he was face to face with Sasuke, his tone livid with rage.

"You'll what? You can't kill me. I've long since been dead. And furthermore- he poked Sasuke with one finger, and a white glow enveloped him for a moment, before fading away, leaving Sasuke with his voice again, and he was furious. "What did you just do to me?!"

The man sighed as he turned to leave, annoyed now with the pesky boy. "Simple. I have now placed an invisible seal on you. You will not be able to enter the Uchiha district, no matter how hard you try. And if you do attempt to do so, you will simply be transported back to Naruto's house."

Then he turned and waved his body begining to fade, but his last words stayed. "Have a nice life Sasuke. I hope you enjoy it."

--

Naruto blearily opened his eyes and grabbed onto the counter, weakly pulling himself to his feet with a groan. He quickly looked himself over, and sighed in relief as he saw that he was still in Sasuke's body. Then he realized that he wasn't dead, and gave a small leap of joy, pumping his fist into the air as his sandaled feet creaked against the wood floor.

"Yes! I'm alive!" The kyuubi snorted in his head, its tone slightly miffed. **"Nice job Gaki. You almost killed us, but since we don't need that seal anymore, you can now borrow my power somewhat**." Now his tone sounded quite pleased with his gleeful vessel**. "And that little near death experience of yours awakened your Sharingan. If you want to activate it, just focus some chakra to your eyes- Ah! There you go! Nicely done kit!"**

Naruto's new reflection smiled back at him, his new Sharingan activated. The new Uchiha beamed happily as he deactivated his bloodline ability, and opened the door again, now preparing to go pay a visit to Kakashi...

--

Sakura was calmly strolling through city streets, when she saw Sas-er...Naruto (That part is gonna be a pain in the ass...) Upon seeing the Uchiha, she smiled and ran up to him just like she always did, reaching his side in an instant, her voice cheery for him as usual. "Hey Sasuke-kun! How are you doing today?"

Naruto mentally grinned as he realized the possibilities that were now open to him. _'Oh boy! She thinks I'm Sasuke! This whole body swap thing is great! Now I can be as nice to her as I want!' _Deciding to give it a go, he decided to act like his usual self, careful to leave out the 'chan' as he spoke, not taking any chances on her realizing that this was his body, but Sasuke was NOT getting it back.

Sakura got the shock of her life, when he smiled down at her, his face warm for once, as was his voice. "Hello Sakura. I'm doing great. How are you today?" The Haruno's heart skipped a beat as he said this, her green eyes going wide with glee. Her happiness was so great, that she dismissed his personality flip, thinking that he was finally warming up to her.

"Oh! I'm doing fine! I was just practicing my shuriken skills last night- she hung her head as she remembered her crappy aim with the throwing stars- "But I just can't seem to get the hang of it." Sasuke, a.k.a. Naruto, smiled down at her yet again, this time daring to put his hand on her shoulder as they walked.

"Sakura, would you like me to help you with your aim? I mean, its fine with me if you're not interested in it-

Now Sakura froze, looking him straight in the eye, her suspicions aroused. Luckily, Naruto had made a backup plan for this. His voice was filled with amusement, as he spoke. "If you think that I'm not Sasuke, then trying releasing the genjutsu. See for yourself."

Sakura immediately did so, but nothing happened. Sasuke was still standing before her, and amused expression on his face. "See? I told you, I'm the real deal." Naruto mentally decided to add a bit of Sasuke's personality into the mix, to avoid making her suspicious again. His tone was dead serious now as he spoke, his black eyes locked with her green. "Now, could you tell me if you're interested or not? I don't offer my help to those who don't want it."

Sakura nodded eagerly, then seemed hesitant about something, opening her mouth and closing it again. Naruto knew exactly what it was, and grinned as he spoke. "Sakura, do you want to go on a date with me tonight, before we begin training?"


	3. The Date

**I HAVE DETERMINED THE PAIRING! IT WILL BE A SMALL, TWO GRIL HAREM!**

Naruto sighed happily as he walked back to the Uchiha district, his blue sandaled feet echoing against the empty streets. "That was SO not waste of my time. Why the hell did Sasuke never ask her out? She's... amazing...

He laughed aloud as he heard Sasuke cry out in pain. _'Looks like he's getting his honorary beating of the day.' _Scratching the back of his head in amazement He smiled now, increasing his speed as saw his new home up ahead. He arrived in a matter of moments, reaching his large house and opening the brown door. He stepped in, enjoying the cool rush of ari that greeted him, and kicking off the blue sandals as he entered.

_'I thought that a date with Sakura would be great, but that, that was AWESOME!'_

Proud of himself, Naruto rooted through the fridge, pulling out a can of soda, but decided against drinking it, and put it away pouring himself a glass of cold water instead. His tone was filled with stunned amazement and joy as the cool liquid poured from the silver sink, slowly filling his tall clear glass. "And when she kissed me, WHOA! What a rush! Guess it really was- (yawn)-meant to be."

(flashback)

Naruto walked Sakura back to her house, beaming at her, and she returned his wide grin as well. Naruto was still shocked at how _different_she was when she was on a date. Instead of the Haruno girl only talking about _him, _and how annoying Naruto was, she had asked him the kinds of questions you usually ask someone. Likes, dislikes, goals dreams, etc.

Naruto had been reluctant to talk about his dream with her, not wanting to make her suspicious yet again, but she had eventually pried it out of him, after they had each finished their second bowl of ramen. When she had found out that he wanted to be hokage, she smiled and asked him if he was doing that just to bother Naruto. Naruto had adamantly shook his head at that, his silver locks swaying back and forth, his tone adamant and annoyed.

"No way! That loser stole my dream first! As hokage, he'd just screw everything up! Now if I was Hokage, I'd make this village treat everyone equally, and no one would be treated poorly! Naruto would probably just pass a law saying that everyone has to eat ramen for breakfast, lunch and dinner!" Sakura burst into giggles at this, and Naruto was laughing like a madman in his head as Sakura she did so.

_'Oh, man! This is perfect! She STILL doesn't suspect a thing! I love this wish!'_The new Uchiha smiled up to the sky, his grey locks swaying back and forth._' Whoever did this, thank you. Thank you so much. This date was wonderful. I don't know why I didn't make this wish earlier!'_

He heard the her footsteps stopping, jolting him out of his reverie. Curious,he looked up, seeing that they had reached her house. Deciding to escort the Haruno in, he turned to face Sakura... and found his eyes locked with hers, neither of them wanting to move from where they were, yet both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Naruto was sweaing bullets as his hands slowly reached down and his fingers gently dug themselves into Sakura's slime waist, the 13 year old Haruno letting out a soft eep of surprise, and yet she didn't pull away, instead taking a step forward, and closing the already small gap between them. Naruto shakily choked the words out:

"S-Sakura, I-I...

Their faces leaned in, and drew closer and closer, until their noses touched, leaving him mute. _'Sakura, she's letting me get this close... I-I..._

Then, giving into his emotions, he leaned his head down, slightky angling his head, and their lips met. Time froze, and their eyes bored into the other's green meeting black. Neither of them moved, until Sakura gave a soft whimper, and closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around his neck, gently pressing him against the wall next to the door.

Naruto's black eyes widened as she hesitantly snaked her tongue into his mouth, the quickly pulled it out, breaking the kiss. She got down off her tip toes, and smiled up at him. Then, she pressed herslef against him again, and leaned up to kiss him, but this time when sh epulled away, Naruto gently placed his hand on the back of her head, drawing her into a passionate make out session, their lips meeting again and again as the kissed slolwy and quietly, the Haruno girl giving off soft moans as they kissed.

Naruto hadn't known what to expect when he kissed her... but he certainly felt something when she pressed her lips against his again and again. Something wonderful, like he was flying high, and he never wanted that feeling to go away. _'Why does Sasuke ignore her? She is SO not annoying..._

Deciding to take a gamble with himself and her, he forced her lips from his, a glad expression on his face and in his voice. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting Sakura. That was a mistake. I'd much rather be like this with you, more than just friends. And I apologize for shooting you down every time you asked me out." The pink haired girl froze, then a mask of pure joy melted onto her face, tears filling her emerald eyes. Her voice was choked with emtion, and filled with happiness as she spoke the words that she had wanted to say to him for so very long.

"Sasuke-kun, I love you. I always have, and I always will. You have no idea how much this date meant to me. That's why I I'm saying this here and now, but- she hugn her head and nervoously tented her fingers, just like Hinata always does. No wher voice was as meek and shy as the nervous and unconfident Hyuuga. "B-But its not the same if you don't have feelings for me too...

Naruto smiled, and placed his hand under her chin, slowly bringing her head up to look him square in the eye. Now his voice was filled with emotion, and he carefully chose his words now. "And I love you Sakura. That was why I aske you ot tonight."' She suppressed a squeal of joy, and rested her head against his toned chest, closing her green eyes as he went on:

"Because, I wanted to see if it would work between us. And know, I know that you and I- he opened the door now, and gently pushed her in, giving her anotherkiss on the lips beofre he did so. He smiled as she giggled at the kiss. Then he turned his back on her, and slowly walked away, his head held high as he shouted over his shoulder, waving good bye to her with his left hand. "We really _were _meant to be Sakura! And I know that now!"

--

The Haruno sighed happily as she slid down the closed door, thoughts of the Uchiha running through her head. _'CHA! Love wins! Sasuke-kun said he loves me!'_

_--_

The new Uchiha ran a hand through his hair as he drank the water, enjoying the cool liquid. _'Now what? We have that 'new mission' tomorrow, but I can't get my mind of off of this! Sakura's stuck in my head!' _He placed the glass in the sink, and slowly crossed the tiled floor and out of the kitchen and into his room, jumping onto the bed and closing his tired eyes- _Sasuke-teme must be going through hell now, hehehe..._

_--_

Sasuke was NOT happy. He had unable to find Naruto all day, as the body snatcher had somehow evaded him unknowingly several times. That, and Sasuke had just gotten a taste of Naruto's daily beatings, firsthand. And thanks to Naruto's incredibly slow reflexes, he had been beaten to a bloody pulp. He winced again as he clutched his bruised and battered body in pain, and slowly made his way back to Naruto's house, ignoring the angry glares everyone shot him.

_'Naruto, when I get my hands on you, you are SO dead!'_

_--_

(Next morning)

Naruto yawned as he paced this way and that in the training field, still clad in his new variation of Sasuke's outfit, and waiting for Kakashi, who had told him to come here alone in the morning. _'Man, why does Sensei always have us meet him so early in the morning?! Is he trying to kill us?!' _Speaking of Kakashi, it was then that Naruto ran smack dab into his sensei, who raised an eyebrow at the surprised look on his face.

His voice was as nonchalant and carefree as ever as he put his perverted book away. "What's wrong Sasuke? Did you forget about our early training session today?" The new Uchiha grinned as, thanks to Sasuke's memories, he did remember indeed. Adopting a forgetful look, he scratched his head and apologized meekly. "My bad sensei. I kinda slept in. I had a long night...

Kakashi's visible eye had an amused twinkle in it, and he sat himself down onto a boulder, and patted the spot beside him, indicating for Naruto to sit. The grey haired genin did so, a happy look on his face as he told the Copycat ninja about his date...

--

As soon as Naruto finished, the book reading pervert, put his hand to his forehead in thought for a moment, before snapping his fingers, reaching a solution, and surprising Naruto, nearly knocking him off of the boulder. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this, then chuckled as Naruto shot him an angry glare, then that chuckle faded as he saw the evil glint in the eyes of his student. _'Uh-oh. I don't like that look-WHOA!'_

Kakashi gave a startled shout as Naruto shoved him off the boulder, laughing his head off as Kakashi fell on his head. "Gee sensei, you really need to work on your reflexes, you're getting rusty!" Kakashi shot Naruto a glare of his own, then that glare quickly faded as he realized the Uchiha was really laughing. He was actually _happy _for once. _'Good, it looks like he's finally starting to overcome his grief and hatred for Itachi. And if that means a little bit of pain on my part, then I'm willing to deal with it.'_

Kakashi sprang to his feet, and his visible eye closed in a smile. "Its great to see you in such good spirits, Sasuke. Now, shall I give you my recommendation?" Naruto's eyes widened, and he nodded eagerly. "Sure! I'd love to hear it!"

Kakashi was grinning beneath his mask as he launched into his explanation...

--

Sasuke angrily stalked through the streets, heading towards the Hokage's office, for their new mission. "Naruto had better be there. Then I can wring his neck...

--

Naruto and Sakura calmly waited for Sasuke to show, ahnd in hand and grinning like idiots. Kakashi looked down at the new couple, and smiled behind his mask. _'Ah young love. It truly is a wonderous sight to behold..._

Then the door banged open, revealing a VERY angry Sasuke, clad in a blakc and red version of Naruto's jumpsuit, the jacket unzipped, exposing a tattered white t-shirt. His blue eyes locked with Naruto's coal black eyes, and he snarled angrily as he saw the new look that his body now had. _'NARUTO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BODY?!'_Grabbing a kunai from his holster, he charged forward, mad as hell, surprising everyone except Naruto who expected such a reaction as Sasuke roared out his words:

"You teme! GIVE ME BACK MY BODY! RIGHT NOW!"


	4. The agreement

Naruto's eyes flashed with anger as Sasuke shot towards him. _'Okay, I have to remember not to give anything away. I have to act like the real Sasuke for now. Bleh, never thought I'd do that..._

And he raised his hand to catch the incoming fist, infuriating Sasuke. With a hiss he attempted another, forcing Naruto to release his hand from Sakura's. The new Uchiha easily caught it as well, firmly gripping down on the wrists of his former body, his new voice, _Sasuke's voice, _deliberately sounding quite confused.

"Your body? What are you talking about loser?" Sasuke only struggled harder, uttering multiple curses that would make a sailor blush. "You know damn well what I'm talking about! You stole my body and I want it back! So hand it over or-URK!"

His angry sentence was interrupted by Kakashi, who grabbed him by the scruff of his orange collar, leaving him dangling in the air, an annoyed tone in his voice as he held the struggling teen. "Naruto, what are you going on about? You _are _in your own body." In his rage, Sasuke completley ignored the Jonin, and grabbed at the hand restraining him, but to no avail, this ody was nowhere near as strong as his old one. He was stuck.

Sasuke glared down at Naruto, his blue eyes filled with hatred for the supposed body snatcher. He increased his futile outfits to break free, voice full of rage and fury as Natuo released his hold on him, taking a step back and intertwining his fingers with Sakura's, the Haruno girl letting out a happy giggle as he did so. Then she heard the rest of Sasuke's angry verbal tirade "- AND THAT'S WHY I'M NOT! I'M SASUKE, HE'S NARUTO, AND HE STOLE MY BODY!"

Sakura slapped her forehead in exasperation, and glared at Sasuke, her eyes and voice blazing with annoyance for the furious blond. "You're not Sasuke-kun!" She jabbed her free hand into a finger in the direction of Naruto, who calmly leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek, making her blush as she spoke. "THAT is Sasuke-kun! Not you! So stop trying to make us think that you're him Naruto! Honestly, saying you switched bodeis, that's your worst attempt yet!" The _real _Naruto restrained a laugh at the sudden role reversal, as Sakura berated Sasuke for attempting to harm her 'Sasuke-kun.'

_'WOW. Now I am definitely staying on her good side..._

--

He let out a sigh as Sasuke hung his head, upset that no one would believe him. _'Okay, that's enough torture.'_

Taking a step forward, he tugged on Kakashi's arm, the Jonin getting his message and releasing the dejected blond. "Let me talk to him for moment. I'm sure I can talk some sense into him." Kakashi nodded and apologized to the Hokage for the interruption. Once again, Naruto released his hand from Sakura's, shooting a quick look over his shoulder at her, before motioning with his head for Sasuke to follow him, which the sadenned Uchiha did, his head hung down.

Sarutobi gave a tired sigh, and explained the mission to Sakura and Kakashi...

--

Naruto closed the door to the office behind him , the two genin standing outside. Naruto silently mad e set of ram, tiger and rat seals, putting up a barrier of sound to block out their words. Then he turned to his rival, and gently bopped him on the head, snapping him out of his saddened stupor, his tone serious. "Oi! Wake up teme!"

And wake up he did, shooting Naruto a glare, and opening his mouth, a curse forming on his lips. Naruto saw this, and franticaly wave dhis hands in front of him. "Hey! Wait a sec! Let me explain, then you can curse at me all you want!" Sasuke angrily snapped his mouth shut, giving Naruto an angry glare. "Wht should I listen to you? You stloe my body! My LEGACY! Do you have any IDEA how important that-

Then Naruto gasped as he saw something most unuusal happen. Sasuke's blue eyes flashed red for a moment, and Naruto gpaed as he watched the Sharingan activate for the second time. _'He must still have some of his bloodline in him..._

Reaching into his pocket, he pulle dout a polished kunai, and held it up in front of Sasuke's face, his tone smug. "Look. You have more of your legacy left in you than you might think." Confused, the blond looked into the polished metal, then did a double take as he saw his sharingan eyes. His tone was filled with awe as a signle coma appeared in each of them. "But how... thought that...

Naruto shrugged, activating his own Sharingan, his eyes becoming red as a black coma apppeared in each one. "Does it really matter? You somehow still have your clan's legendary bloodline, so isn't that what's important? You HAVE to be an Uchiha to have that."

Sasuke found himself at a loss for words, his Sharingan meeting Naruto's. _'He's...right. With my Sharingan, I AM still an Uchiha. I can still have my revenge on Itachi!' _A slow smile crept up his face, and Naruto grinned as he realized that Sasuke was returning to his old self. Daring to venture the question, he stuck out his hand.

"Truce?"

Sasuke satred at him for a moment, before his smile widened into a grin, and he shook with him. "Truce. But about the whole body swap-

His sentnece was unfinished as he saw Hinata out of the corner of his eye, peeking at him form around a corner. As soon as she saw his gaze focused on her, she turned a beet red and ducked around the corner. Sasuke smiled at that. Originally, _he _did like Hinata, but her love for Naruto had confounded his attempts to speak to her, knowin ghtta she was only interested in the blond. But then, a surprisingly half nice, half evil thought entered his mind.

_'Wait a minute. I look like Naruto now. She likes Naruto. And that means... YES! I can ask her out!'_

Naruto quirked a blakc eyebrow as he saw Sasuke staring at te corner that Hinata had hidden behind. He grinned, his tone laced with amusement as he spoke. "Ah, you like Hinata, don't you?" Sasuke stiifened at the remark, his body going rigid as he turned to fac Naruto, eyes returning to their normal blue. Surprisingly, his tone was sheepish as he spoke, hands back behind his blond head.

"Well, I guess this body of yours isn't too bad... what can it do?"

Naruto snorted in amusement, a wide grin on his face as he ran over the list...

--

(An hour later)

Naruto and Sasuke met Sakura and Kakashi at the village gate, and Naruto's black eyes gleamed with interest as he saw Tazuna. "Hey, is this the guy we have to guard?" This should be fun...


	5. Ambush

Naruto mentally spoke with the Kyuubi as Kakashi led them down the trail. The new owenr of Sasuke's body was _determined _to find out how his former body had obtained the Sharingan. _'Okay fox, Spill it. How did Sasuke get the Sharingan in MY body? Did you screw with my genetics or something?'_

The lord of Demons chuckled as they began to pass a puddle. _'I'll tell you later. But as for right now, we're about to have some uninvited guests..._

Behind team 7 and Tazuna, the puddle they just passed morphed into two ninjas with scratches on their forehead protectors. They wore black clothes and had huge gauntlets on, equipped with massive claws. Their hands were connected by a sharp looking chain between the gauntlets, the spiked metal glistening in the light. The two exchanged a look, and silently jumped towards the group, whipping their chain around rapidly, and it sonn ensnared Kakashi, the spikes digging into him as the chain wrapped him in its deadly embrace.

The Jonin dropped his orange book in surprise, and let out a startled shout. The three genin and Tazuna whirled around in shock, just in time to watch to see Kakashi be shredded to pieces, the bloody remains falling to the ground.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled out, voice filled with fear at the sight of their sensei being taken down so easily. Naruto merely grimaced, and looked to Sasuke, who drew a Kunai and nodded, his voice calm and sure as he saw the plan reflected in his fellow Uchiha's eyes. "I got it. Go for it."

The mist ninjas laughed as they saw the genin prepare to go on the offensive. "What? You brats actually think that you can beat us? No mere genin has a chance- they tore forward, their sights set on Sakura, who let out a startled gasp- "Agaisnt the Demon Brothers!"

They charged forward, one of them going around Sakura, the chain beginning to circle around her. The Haruno saw this, grimacing as she overcame her fear. _'Okay. Just like Sasuke showed me.'_ She drew two Kunai, the dark metal glistening as sun reflected off it. The cahin began to circle her rapidly, and she brought them up just in time to use the daggers to slap the deadly chain away as it came in from the left, then she spun to the right swatting the chain away as it came at her from that side. Naruto's coal black eyes flashed as he saw her defend herself, knowing all too well that they planned on repeating the same brutal treatment on Sakura.

The future Hokage would have none one of that.

The sight of the two mist nin doing such a thing, no, even the _thought _of it, made Naruto livid with rage that anyone would do such a thing to his girlfriend. He trembled with rage, so mad that when his Sharingan eyes activated, a second coma appearing next to each of his first one.

He didn't notice however, because a moment later, he jumped into the air, pulling out a shuriken as he did so. _'Okay. We have to time this just right.'_ He threw the shuriken at the chain, which Sakura had jumped over, doing a quick handspring to get out of range. The shuriken brought the chain to a nearby tree, and Sasuke smirked as he threw the kunai, lodging the chain into the tree. The two mist nins tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge.

"It won't come out!" one of them said, desperation in his voice. The other moved to detach the chain, but before he could, Sakura and Sasuke had dealt with them, Sakura by pressing a pressure point in the neck of her opponent, while Sasuke drove his knee and fist into his opponent's temple, KO'ing him immediately.

Then Kakashi appeared out of nowhere, appeared next to them and clapping. A smile could be seen under his mask, and his visible eyes sparkled with amusement, his tone filled with pride for his team.

"Very good. Excellent. I'm proud of you three!" he said, praising the Genin for their effort. _'They held of two Chunin, and none of them froze up... Maybe they have what it takes for the...No. They still need more training before I can even THINK of recommending them for that.'_

Naruto then crossed the short distance between him and Sakura, who leapt into his arms, a gleeful expression on her face. "How was that Sasuke-kun? I told you I'd been training every day." The crimson clad Uchiha gave her a warm smile, and ran a hand through her pink hair, voice worried.

"I know, but don't scare me like that. You could've killed yourself...Sakura-chan. He bit his lip as he realized that he had let that slip by. _'Crap. I gotta watch what I-HEY!'_

His thoughts were interrupted, as the Haruno girl softly pressed her strawberry tasting lips against his, cold ones. Naruto wasn't expecting such a reaction, but Sasuke could clearly see from the look on his rival's face, that he didn't seem to mind the kiss. He smiled, his blue eyes warm as he watched them break the kiss, staring adoringly into each other's eyes. _'Dobe. You are so head over heels for her..._

--

"I wonder what is taking sensei so much time." Sakura said thoughtfully. Kakash had taken the two unconciou snin into the woods, saying that he wanted to see what they knew about their mission. Sasuke and Naruto shrugged, and then resumed their arm wrestling match, neither one winning.

Just then two huge, terror filled screams came, and the three Genin and one bridge builder nearly jumped out of their skin.

"What...was that?" Tazuna asked

"I have no idea." Sakura replied, her voice shaky.

"Perhaps sensei knows." Sasuke said hesitantly, realizing that the Copy Nin was probably torturing the two mist nin for info.

--

A little later, said Jonin reappeared with a stern look in his one eyes. He sat down next to Naruto. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were shocked to see his normally warm eye, ice cold. His black eye looked like a frozen lump of coal. However, the look wasn't turned to the Genin though, it was on Tazuna.

" Would you mind telling us why you deliberatley withheld information and neglected to tell us that you have _several_ hired ninjas after you?" He asked, tone ice cold, much like his eye. Tazuna looked down at the ground, apperantly very interested in the dirt all of a sudden. The Genin were confused though.

"Huh? What are you talking about sensei?" Sakura asked.

He turned his gaze on his confused students, and it was his normal lazy one, yet his tone was still frozen with ice. "This is a C-rank mission. We were hired to protect Tazuna from bandits, not ninjas. The two mist ninjas said they were hired to kill Tazuna and that more would follow." Tenshi said and the Genin turned to Tazuna.

"Well? Start talking!" Sasuke and Naruto commanded, eager to know who the blazes they were up against.

The bridge builder let out a sad sigh, the breath coming out slowly, his tone dejected and sad as he looked up again.

"Fine. I'll tell you everything. About a year and a half ago, the wave country was a rich country. Good to live in and everyone were happy. But then Gatou came." Tazuna said sadly.

"Gatou?" Naruto asked.

"The president in the Gatou cooperation? He is one of the wealthiest people in the world. Did you do something to anger him?" Kakashi inquired and Tazuna nodded.

"Yes, officially he appears to be only a business man, but he is really a criminal, using violence and corruption to take control and smuggle drugs, weapons and other valuables. He took control over wave country by buying all the ports. He controls all sea travel and on an island that means you control the island. He takes all the money and the wave has become a poor country with no hope." Tazuna said and dried a tear.

"That is why I am building the bridge. My bridge will connect us with the mainland, and we can prosper again. But Gatou fears my bridge and wants to kill me to stop it. So he hired several assasins and othe rmen to make certain I did not succeed. I went to the Leaf for protection, but... The land of Waves is a poverty stricken nation. And since we are so poor, we couldn't afford anything higher than a C-rank mission." Tazuna said and the Jonin sighed, rising to his feet, voice serious.

"This mission is over. The client withheld crucial information and this should be a B-rank, if not an A-rank. We're going back to Konoha." he said and turned to leave, but Tazuna stopped him by placing his hand on the man's shoulder, voice desperate, as was the pleading look on his face.

"You can't. If you leave, I'll be killed. My eight year old grand son will cry all day and my daughter will hold a grudge against Konoha. The bridge will never be finished and wave will always be as it is now, without hope. Please don't leave." Tazuna pleaded. Kakashi spun around, and the same cold look froze Tazuna.

"I lost all of those who I cared for, many years ago. Do you really think that would work on me?". Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna were shocked by this outburst. Tazuna because of what had been said, while Naruto, and the genin because they had no idea that Kakashi had lost all of those that were precious to him.

"Please…" Tazuna said while bowing low.

"Sensei, these people need our help." Sakura pleaded, her green eyes and soft voice pleading with him as well.

"Besides, you saw hos easily we took down those losers. We can handle what ever they throw at us, right? Face it sensei, we aren't so bad either." Naruto said confidently. The jonin stared at them for a moment, before turning to Sasuke, who seemed deep in thought

"What about you? What do you think?" Tenshi asked and Sasuke thought for a bit before giving a nod, his now slightly longer blond hair swaying as his head moved.

"Let's continue." He said and the Copycat ninja sighed in exasperation.

"It seems I am outvoted. We'll continue on one condition." He said towards Tazuna.

"What is it?" he asked.

"This mission is now an A-rank mission. When your country gets back on its feet, you are to pay us the appropriate sum of money." Kakashi said and Tazuna nodded.

Naruto grinned at the agreeance and jabbed a finger in the direction of the horizon, voice eager to continue moving. "All right! Let's get a move on then!"


	6. The Masked Figure

They traveled uninterrupted for several days until they finally reached Wave country. As they reached the shoreline, a boat was waiting for them, and Tazuna explained that the driver was friend of his, and the pilot expertly snuck them in, and the reached the shore without any disturbances.

Or so they thought.

A masked girl watched them reach the shore, and as soon as she recognized the bridge builder, she left to inform her master, but before she did so, her gaze fell on Naruto, who had let his hair return to its customary raven black color. The girl was transfixed by the aura of sadness that surrounded him, after all, she always had been able to read people with such ease.

Then she shook her head, and dissapeared in a swirl of leaves, as Naruto's coal black eyes fell on her.

Once they got to shore, Tazuna told them that they would be staying at his place. And then he gave Naruto and odd look as he saw black haired teen staring off into the distance. "Something wrong kid?" His words broke Naruto's focus, and the Uchiha shook his head clearing the cobwebs. "No. I just... I thought I saw someone." He waved a hand in dismissal as Kakashi gave him a questioning look. "I could just be seeing things. It was probably a bird...

Several hours later, as they walked in the forest, Naruto heard a noise in the bushes, and he exchanged a glance with Sasuke. An instant later the two boys simultaneously threw a kunai at the bush, causing a white rabbit to jump out and run away.

"Shit," said Sakura, her face worried.

"Sorry," apologized Naruto, scratching his black hair, watching the furry creature scamper off into the woods, while Sasuke stared intently at the rabbit. _'Wait a second. It's fur was-_

Sakura soon confirmed the suspicions of the blond, and his blue eyes narrowed as she spoke.

She waved a hand in front of her face, her expression deep in thought. "No, it's not that, It's just that that rabbit was used as a decoy. I mean, its summer so it's fur shouldn't be white. It's white because it must've been kept in a cage, so- That was when they heard the noise.

"Get down now!" shouted Kakashi, dropping Tazuna with him as the three genin simultanrously dropped flat to the earth...

They hit the ground hard and fast, the blade flying mere centimeters above their heads, and landed in the muscular hand of a man in a tree. Naruto stared at him intently, noticing the mist headband on his forehead. _'Another one? The mist must really have it out for us.'_

The man stared down at them, eyes gleaming with annoyance at having missed them by such a close margin. _'These punks are either really good, or they just got REALLY lucky.'_ He had dark hair, no eyebrows, bandages covering his face, and dark pants. He was shirtless showing the world his muscles. When he spoke, his deep voice boomed out, laced with amusement. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he made out a smile under the bandages, thanks to the enhanced sight of his new body.

"Well, so these are the people who defeated the Demon Brothers. Why am I not impressed?" said the man with amusement in his voice.

Kakashi's voice was dead serious as he recognized the muscular man before them. "Zabuza Momochi, I never would've thought someone like you would sell out to Gato," said Kakashi, his tone grim as he stared up at the Demon of the Mist.

Zabuza's voice was filled with arrogance as he spoke to the Copycat. " I needed to make some cash. But- Ah! So you must be Kakashi Hatake. It truly is an honor to finally meet you face to face meet you." His tone held false reverence as he spoke. Then his black eyes hardened as they fell on Tazuna, the bridge builder as white as a ghost. "Now if you don't mind, my only target is only the old man so if you don't want to die then just step away." Kakashi shook his head, and reached up to his headband that was covering his other eye.

"Nope," he said after a minute. "Not happening any time soon." He turned to his team, voice grim as he pulled up the headband, exposing a closed eyes that had a vertical scar running down the middle. "All right you three. This one is a Jonin. I want you two get around Tazuna and let me handle him. He's a missing-nin from Mist and was known as the Demon of the Mist. He got that name after he killed his entire graduating class."

"All without any previous training," added Zabuza smugly as he chucked at the memory. He then decided to have a look at the genin. The black haired boy looked cocky, and the pink haired girl seemed to be the most intelligent of the three (having seen threw his distraction). His eyes stopped on the blond and then they grew wide when he saw the bloodlust in his eyes. _'These three aren't ordinary Genin. I better watch myself.'_

"Hey," shouted Sasuke, tone annoyed. "Stop staring at me you eyebrow less freak." Zabuza ignored him and faced Kakashi once again, and the Jonin opened his eye in response, revealing... a Sharingan eye, all three black comas within it. Ignoring the startled gasps form Sasuke and Naruto, The Jonin turned to face Zabuza fully, turning his body as he did so. "So. Shall we begin, Demon of the Mist?"

Zabuza grinned. He hadn't been this excited since he found Haku. Now he had a chance to TRULY test his abilities to their fullest potential. His tone held powerful blood lust within it, making the three Genin shiver in a mix of anticipation and fear."Okay Kakashi! Let's see how good you and your so called _team _really are! **Hidden Mist Jutsu!"**With that, a heavy mist drifted in, slowly covering the entire area, and making everyone's sight worthless. He then let out a powerful killing intent, startling all of them except Kakashi.

_What a powerful killing intent_, thought Sasuke. _If I make a single mistake, I'll die. I can't stand this! I'd rather kill my self than-_ But he took a deep breath and calmed himself as Kakashi looked over his shoulder, his eyes locking with Sasuke's blue.

"Don't worry Naruto." He said, voice calm and confident. "I will not allow my comrades to die." His eyes closed in their tradtional upside down U as he smile through his mask, cool as cucumber. "Trust me." But then, Zabuza's voice rang out from the mist, and as he spoke, he appeared behind the genin, sword raised and ready to cut them down. "Sorry, but that won't happen- He appeared behind them, and a wide grin was evident through the bandages. "They are going to die right here and-URK!" His dark eyes widened in surprise, as Sasuke and Naruto had taken advantage of his fixation on Kakashi, each if them driving a kunai into his gut.

And before he could respond. Sakura grinned, and followed up by leaping up, and raising her foot high into the air. Zabuza's head snapped up as he heard her voice, her heel descending upon him like a wrecking ball. "Shinobi rule number one! NEVER- her heel slammed down onto his upturned face, knocking it down with a loud crack- "Let your guard down!"

Kakashi watched in awe and amazement as his team easily dispatched of the nin. But then, his Sharingan eye narrowed, as he saw water streaming out of its gut. Naruto, Sakura Sauske! Get away from it! It's a water clone!" Startle expressions appeared on each of their faces, and they each let out a loud "Shit! Water clone!" Naruto and Sauek instantly released their kunai, and backpedaled next to Kakashi, Sakura pushing her feet of the evaporating clone before it disappeared.

But, before she could push off it, and before anyone could blink, Zabuza appeared above her, with his sword in hand, and with a cackle,cut her in half." Drawing a shocked gasp from Naruto, horror written all over his face. "Sakura...

Zabuza shook his head, and pulled his sword out of the corpse, his tone annoyed." Stupid girl. Well, at least that makes one down... Then, to his surprise, and Naruto's relief, 'Sakura, turned into mud, the slime oozing into the earth. Now Naruto was _extremley _grateful for her insistence on learning a clone jutsu. _'Oi, what a relief. She's gonna give me a heart attack at this rate..._.

Zabuza's eyes narrowed as the mud faded away. " Sneaky little wench. She used an earth clone, without me even noticing it." Then he felt a kunai press against his throat.

"Was that all you had, Zabuza? I'm dissapointed in you. I thought you'd give me and my team a better fight than _that._" Hissed Kakashi, as Sakura appeared out of the mist standing next to him, with a wide grin on her face. Then, in the blink of an eye, they each drove a kunai into the gut of the mist Jonin, who gave a grunt of pain. Then the missing nin grinned beneath the bandages, as water poured from the holes they had made. "Is that all _you _got?" An instant after he was stabbed, Zabuza dissolved into water making Sakura and Kakashi whirl around, just in time to kicked from behind. Naruto and Sasuke watched in shock as the two were was launched into the lake that happened to be nearby and raced towards them as the two swam back up to the surface, only to be blocked by another Zabuza, with the real one standing over Kakashi and Sakura, making a rapid set of seals as they saw him Zabuza.

"**Water Prison Jutsu!**" With that, the water sprang up and encircled them, quickly trapping the two in a sphere of water. Zabuza laughed at the startled expression on their faces, tone arrogant as usual. "That was pretty good. Nice timing, excellent reaction. But you two aren't good enough to beat the likes of me. As long as I hold onto this sphere, you're stuck. Then you'll slowly die as you run out of air. Such a pleasant way to die, isn't it?" Sakura snarled, lashing out at the sphere with a chakra enhanced fist, only for her to pull back her hand in pain as it bounced off. Kakashi merely sighed, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a pair of re-breathers, giving one to Sakura, and placing the other one over his mouth. But the two expert rookies knew, that those two still had a limited amount of time before they ran out of air. "Well, better take care of you tow brats and the old man. **Water Clone Jutsu!**" A clone of Zabuza appeared at the edge of the lake and began to stalk over to themm cracking it's neck as it did so.

The two genin began to fight their panic. Sasuke was cursing that he would never get to kill his brother or revive his clan. Naruto was watching his life flash before his eyes. To put in bluntly, it had mostly sucked. But, when he got to the part were Iruka saved his life, things began to get better. No way was he going to let it end now. Not when he finally got his life turned around, and ended up in Sasuke's body, and finally made friends with Sasuke, not to mention that he still intended on becoming the Hokage, as well as marrying Sakura one day.

Suddenly he had an idea. He just hoped that Sasuke would figure the rest out. He stepped forward and reached into his pack, pulling out a large shuriken and setting it onto the ground.

"Interesting," said the clone. "I will enjoy seeing the skills that you two possess." He motined forward with one hand, tone eager. "Come on then. Let's see what the two of you are capable of."

Sasuke merely grinned, as he caught the drift of his rival. _'So, you want to try something like that? Fine by me.'_ He crossed his fingers, in a familiar seal that we all know so very well. **"Shadow clone Jutsu!"**A moment later, in a poof of smoke, twenty copies of himself appeared and the blondes each cracked their knuckles in anticipation, their blue eyes gleaming as they reached into their kunai holsters, pulling out two kunai each.

Naruto smiled, glad that Sasuke had enough of his old memories to remember how to do that jutsu. His eyes flashed red as he activated his Sharingan, the legendary Copy Wheel appearing in an instant. Then , the red eyes focused on the Mist Jonin as he spoke, making the same seal as Sasuke. "If you liked that, then here's my **Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" At that, there was a puff of smoke and then there were twenty Naruto's. Amidst the poof of smoke, Naruto grinned as he and Sasuke mad the seal for a transformation jutsu, the smoke covering it perfectly.

Then, as the smoke faded, the 40 clones calmly stalked towards Zabuza's clone, who narrowed his eyes, as he brought his sword up in a horizontal guard. "Oh, shadow clones. And there certainly are a lot of them. Looks like theses two aren't such pushovers after all." A moment later, the clones stopped walking, picking ups speed as the began to dash forward, drawing a circle of red and orange as they encircled the the clone Zabuza. From with in the circle, the voices of Naruto and Sasuke echoed out, their voice overlapping each other simultaneously. "Now you're in for it. Let's see you deal with 80 kunai in your chest at once." Now, they began to appear and disappear around the clone, confusing him. "This move makes it impossible for you to hit us." said one of the Naruto's as he faded into view, only to fade out just as quickly Then one of Sasuke's clones spoke, his voice barely audible at the speed at which they were moving. "With fluid like motions and the constantly changing speed, you can't predict where I am or where I am going." Clone Zabuza was swinging his sword like a mad man as the shuriken shot out from all angles while the real one watched with interest.

_'Well, well, well. It looks like theses tw are Chunin level at least. No wonder the demon brothers lost..._

While this was going on, the real Naruto and Sasuke picked up the FOUR shuriken that littered the ground. Two in each hand. Simultaneously, they leapt high into the air, quickly changing their twin shuriken into one hand each. "Eat this! **Shadow Windmill Shuriken!**" With that, they lobbed the giant shuriken at the Jonin, who was still watching the frenzied defense of his clone.

Then he heard the whirling blades coming, and saw them out of the corner of his eye. Zabuza noticed the attack coming and crused under his breath. '_It was a distraction. They were just showing off to get my attention away from his teammates. AND I FELL FOR IT!_Zabuza then timed himself slowly, and snatched the first shuriken out of the air with his free hand. Then, he snapped his head sharply to the left, the second one carving past where his head had just been the vertical star shooting off into the air. When he saw the third, one he jumped to avoid it while still holding the sphere. "Stupid punks! A shuriken can't touch me!" But the two surprised him, by smiling. He had forgotten about the fourth one, and it also shot beneath his legs...

"Hey freak," came a voice from behind Zabuza, startling the smug Jonin out of his gloating. "Wha- He looked over his shoulder, around and saw the fourth windmill shuriken turn into the blond, who rapidly went through seals, a manic grin on his face as he did so. "Eat this loser! **Fire style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!**" Sasuke cupped his mouth with one hand, letting out his a deep breath, and a barrage of small fireballs shot out, tearing holes in the fogy mist as the homed in on the Missing Nin. Zabuza cursed under his breath, he had two choices, and he didn't like either of them one bit. _'Great. Either I let Kakashi and the kunoichi loose , or I get burnt to a crisp. Some choice. That's just greaaaaaaat.' _Not wanting to be charbroiled, he reluctantly released his hand from the sphere, breaking the jutsu, and Kakashi and Sakura immediately leapt out of the disintegrating sphere, and landed on the bank of the small pond. Sasuke gave a triumphant shout as hit water, flipping Zabuza the bird as he landed with a splash. _'Ha! Some Jonin he is! I can't believe that worked on him!'_

But as he swam back up to the surface, he paled in fright. Zabuza now stood above him, and his tone held furious rage as he gave him a death glare.

"You little shit," he said as he grabbed his sword, raising it high over his head. "You are so dead." However, before he could do anything else, two kunai were shoved into his side, one on the right, and the other on his left. The daggers were soon followed up by a hand, which grabbed the muscular nin by the throat, and held it in a death grip. Zabuza's eyes widened in surprise, and he looked down to see the form of Kakashi, who was the one holding his neck, his Sharingan eye spinning rapidly. "This is the end for you, Demon. This is your last battle. Ever." Zabuza silently fumed at his helplessness, stunned thoughts racing through his head. _'How did they-DANG IT! I LET MY GUARD DOWN AGAIN!'_Sakura and Naruto grinned as they yanked out their kunai, sticking their tongues out at him in the process.

Beneath the bandages, his mouth opened in a silent 0 of surprise._'I'm... losing. TO A BUNCH OF SNOT NOSED BRATS!' _But before he could pull out the kunai or break free, Sasuke leapt out of the water, and gave him a roundhouse kick that landed in his gut, making the Demon choke back a cry of pain as Sasuke dug his foot in harder. "So. I'm a little shit eh? This little shit _and _his friends just kicked your ass." Zabuza had just enough time to see the red of his eyes, and then the sheer force of the kick, followed up by another one MUCH stronger kick from Kakashi, tossed him off of the water and drove him into a tree, the wood splintering as his back into it. Immediately, Then, as he rose to his feet, Kakashi shot forward, and slammed his foot into the man's bare chest, forcing him to the ground as he raised a hand holding a kunai, ready to end the life of the infamous missing nin.

But before he could act, three senbons were imbedded in the neck of the Jonin, causing him to give a surprised gurlge, before his head hung limp. The group looked up and saw a dark haired hunter-nin, standing atop the tree, and the figure bowed, tone humble.

"Thank you for you assistance," She said in a very feminine voice. "I doubt I could have taken him by my self. I appreciate the help." Then the hunter nin appeared next to Zabuza's body, picking him over her shoulder. Her masked gaze focused on Naruto for a moment before falling on Kakashi once more. "I will be leaving now to dispose of the body and any potential secrets that it might hold from my village. Good bye." With that, the two disappeared into a whirlwind of leaves.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glance, and the same thoughts ran through their heads. _'Something's not right here. Who was that? Why was that girl so eager to get out of here? Is she in league with-_

But then, Kakashi interrupted their thoughts, by placing a hand on each of their shoulders, and the two were glad that they had deactivated their Sharingan moments earlier. The Jonin's voice was gilled with pride as he spoke to the two of them, while giving Sakura a thumbs up. "Good job you two. And Sakura, that was excellent work back there. You took advantage of every opening he gave you. As for Naruto and Sasuke, that was some strategy that the two of you made. I guess you guys are getting along after all."

The two grinned nervously while inwardly breathing a sigh of relief. _'That was a bit close for comfort..._

Tazuna pumped his fist into the air triumphantly, voice filled with amazement, a wide grin on his aged face. "That was amazing! I had doubts but that was amazing! Come on, let's get to my place so you guys can get some rest and I can get something to drink!"


	7. First Kill

**Okay. I'm skipping Kakashi's speech. They can already tree climb, so their just doing their own thing for training.**

In a cone shaped house in the middle of the forest, a girl sat next to her master, who was currently resting. The girl had a pretty face, dark brown eyes, dark hair that was tied up in a bun on top of her head, except two bangs hanging down and framing her face. She wore a green shirt with brown pants and a long, brown belt.

"Another four days, and you'll be back to normal Zabuza." The girl said.

--

The next day, the same girl stood up and walked over to the window. Releasing the bun, her hair fell down to just under her shoulder blades. _'We're running out of medicinal herbs. I better go get some more..._

Ten minutes later, she was walking into the forest. Now she wore a pink kimono with red cherry blossoms on it, making her appear like a simple civilian, not a deadly ninja. She carried a basket and was humming slightly to herself as her bare feet crossed through the grass making her giggle slightly as the strands tickled her feet.

After an hour of walking, she came upon what she had searched for. Kneeling down, she started to pick medical herbs. Soon her basket was almost full. A bird landed on her shoulder, and she smiled at it. Cooing slightly at it before returning to her task. She was startled when the bird suddenly flew off. Feeling slightly down, she followed it with her gaze. She saw the bird land next to a boy. A boy with raven hair, And a Konoha forehead protector. The girl got up and walked towards him, leaning her face close to his in curiosity. The bird flew off, as if thinking that the girl was going to kill the boy. Instead she shook him awake gently her brown eyes still curiously staring at him

"Hey, you'll catch a cold sleeping here." she said kindly. Naruto opened his eyes and looked up at the pretty girl,his black eyes meeting her brown. Then they saw hos close they were to each other, and the both turned beet red. Naruto was the first to move, carefully pulling back and Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes before turning to her.

"Hey miss, what are you doing here?" he asked

The girl smiled, her pale pink blush fading and gestured to her basket.

"I'm picking medical herbs. They're for my injured companion." She said with a smile on her face. Naruto yawned as he rose to his feet, a smile on his face. " The name's Sasuke. Mind if I lend ya a hand?"

--

A little later, Naruto was helping the girl.

"So, what were you doing out here?" the girl asked and Naruto grinned

"Training!" he said proudly.

"So, you are a ninja. Why would you be training? You look very strong already." The girl said.

"I want to be even stronger so that I can become the Hokage. And I want to make Sakura-chan and everyone else proud of me." Naruto said seriously but still cheerfully.

"So, you train because of your precious people?" the girl said.

"You bet. But what do you mean by that?" Naruto replied

"When you have people precious to you, you become stronger when you fight for them." The girl explained. Naruto thought for a bit and remembered all the people he held precious to him. Iruka, Sandaime, the ramen man and his daughter, Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, and if he was completely honest with himself; Kyuubi. Naruto realised why he wanted to train so hard. He wanted to use his strenght to protect those he cared about.

"Yeah, I understand what you mean." He said and the girl smiled. She stood up from where she had crouched down and took her basket.

"You will become strong then, very strong. By the way, the name is Haku." She said and walked away.

--

The girl walked for a bit until she heard a voice behind her.

"Thank you. That was some motivational speech,The girl whirled around to see who talked to her. She saw the REAL Sasuke step out from behind a tree, his blue eyes cold as he recognized her, his Sharingan seeing through her facade as she spoke.

"Oh, you scared me. But it was no big deal." The girl said and smiled at him, hoping that he would fall for her facade, who she recognized one of the ninja who had almost killed Zabuza.

"Even if it wasn't a big deal, he'll use what you said, and help him in his training. He's been a bit down about something lately anyway. Thanks... mist hunter nin!" The avenger said with a smile, although his eyes were his cold red Sharingan steel. The girl shuddered a little and tried to deny it.

"What are you…"

"You can't fool these eyes. The way you talk, the way you hold yourself, the slight twitch of your eye. I recognize it all form the hunter nin that saved Zabuza. But don't worry. I won't attack you, and neither will the one you just talked to. I just wanted to thank you, but the next time we meet, we will have to fight. And when that happens, you are SO going down." The blond said and walked past her to inform Naruto. The girl stood there for a bit before composing herself and running back to Zabuza.

--

After the girl left, Naruto was joine by Sasuke who informed him of the true identity of Haku. That being known, the two of them put their mind body and soul into their training.

--

Three days after the encounter with the girl, they stood in front of Kakashi again, and looked a lot worse for wear.

"Are you sure you should be training so hard?" The Jonin inquired, worried about the two of them burning themselves out. The two beamed at him, Sasuke speaking for the both of them.

"Shut up. You'll see the fruits of our training soon enough."

--

--

Kakashi sat on the roof, hand in hand, gazing at the moon, the cool breeze blowing through his hair.

"Tomorrow is going to be a bad day. Zabuza's probably itching to tear me apart now. And this time, he'll be on guard. He won'd go down so easily." He gave a sigh as he said this, and leaned back against the roof, his head hitting Tsunami's ankles and knocking her over, and causing her to land atop him. The daughter of Tazuna had come up to give him dinner, placing the tray beside him as she stood above him, but he had been so absorbed in thought, that he didn't notice her.

And when she landed, their lips met.

Their eyes practically bugged out of their head when that happened, but much to the surprise of the Jonin, Tsunami laced her fingers into his, and kept him there...

--

The next day came way too early for Sasuke. The sun shone right onto his eyes, and it took a few minutes for him to blink away the weariness. He turned and looked at the clock, then his eyes widened as he saw what time it was.

'_Crap. I overslept!'_He thought, jumped out of bed, ran to the bathroom, got washed, ran back, got dressed and just as he was strapping his newly made katana onto his back, he heard a yell downstairs.

"If you touch that child, I'll bite my tongue off and kill myself."

_'That was Tsunami. What the blazes is going on here?'_he thought before he sensed the presence of two unfamiliar chakras.

Deciding to help, he snuck out the window, and clung to the wall with chakra. Making his way to the door, which was sliced to pieces, he peered in and saw two gruffy looking samurai holding Tsunami hostage and leaving a crying Inari. Quickly hiding, Sasuke watched as the two samurai walked out, leading a tied up Tsunami. Jumping and landing in front of them, The angry avenger stopped them while drawing his katana.

"Release her." Sasuke commanded, eyes flashing red revealing two comas in each eye.

"huh? One of those ninja kids Tazuna hired. And it looks like he's an Uchiha." One of the samurai said.

"Let's kill him." The other said."We'll get REAL popular if everyone thinks we killed the last Uchiha!" They looked at Tsunami, and one licked hi slips as the other one spoke.

"If you move, then we will kill your little brat." They said and rushed at Sasuke, who merely grinned, reaching behind his back. Inari, who saw all this, ran to his mother as fast and silently as he could.

"Mom. I'll save you." He said and quickly untied her.

"Inari…" Tsunami said and hugged the boy.

--

The avenger grinned as the samurai rushed at him.

"Oh please. You two don't stand a chance against me." He said and began his technique with a kage bunshin. Both Naruto and the clone began running towards the samurai.

"Blade Barrage! they yelled out and to the samurai it looked like they divided into four. But just as they struck the rushing Genin with a sword slash each, they were surprised when their swords passed right trough. _'What?!' _They managed to half turn and see Sauske and the clone descend upon them from the sky, white blades raised hig over their heads. Then they swung down, and the two men gapsed as the wer cut through, from the right shoulder to the left hip. The clone puffed away and Sasuke sheathed his sowrd, and nearly threw up. He had made his first kill.

'_Damn, so this is how it feels to kill. To end someone's life. I think I'm going to be sick. I wonder how I'll feel when I kill my brother..._ he thought and before he could really control himself he threw up.

Inari and Tsunami, who had been watching, ran over to him, being careful not to step in the blood pool from the two dead samurai.

"Naruto! Are you alright?" Tsunami asked the still retching boy. He shook his eyes and looked at the two bodies before closing his eyes.

"I heard that the first kill was bad, but this…damn!" he said and sat down. Looking at his shaky hands his voice almost broke, still shocked at his accidental kill.

"This hand ended someone's life. I…I.. I know why Kakashi-sensei is always so depressed. he must have killed _thousands _of people in his lifetime. And here I am freaking out over killing TWO."

Tsunami and Inari looked at each other. They whirled back when Sasuke stood up and shook his head sadly, voice firm.

"I can't sit here and feel sorry for myself. If they attacked here, they'll definitely attack the bridge. I'll just clean this up a bit." he said and made some kage bunshin. Tsunami noted that Naruto's hands still shook slightly. The clones picked up the two bodies and carried them out on the water. Sasuke followed up on this and made some hand seals.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu" he called out and the fire ball incinerated the bodies. When he was done, he walked back to the two. He noticed Inari looking slightly afraid.

"Don't worry kid, I won't hurt you." Sasuke reassured and Inari smiled at him. Then the sad avenger turned in the direction of the bridge.

"I'll have to go now. Be careful, okay?" he said but didn't give Inari or Tsunami a chance to respond, as he simply faded out of view, rapidly heading towards the bridge.


	8. The Mask

"What…what is this?" Tazuna yelled, voice and face filled with shock and horror for the sight that lay before them. He, and the others with the exception of the dozing Sasuke, had arrived to chek on the prgoress of the bridge, only to be met with the grisly sight of bloodied bodies of the workers lying about either unconscious or killed.

"This is… Zabuza's technique...Sakura said, gulping nervously as she remembered how close their last battle had been, and she wa snot looking forward to almost drowning again.

"Form the ring." Kakashi commanded, his tone that of cold steel. The ninjas formed a protective ring around Tazuna, each except for Naruto, pulling out a kunai while getting ready for the attack that was certainly going to come soon.

Then a thick mist came rolling in, covering the bridge in a dense fog that blocked all visibility. Kakashi's eyes narrowed, and he quickly pulled up his headband, exposing his Sharingan eye once more. _'They're back already? I didn't think that they'd attack again tis soon. We should've had at least two more days..._

**"**Hidden Mist Jutsu." Zabuza's voice came throughout the mist, coming from every direction as he used his signature technique.

Naruto let out an exasperated sigh as he activated his own Sharingan, the two black comas appearing in each of his now red eyes. "I hate this jutsu. It SO messes up my Sharingan...

Sakura did a double take as soon as he said this, a surprised expression on her face as she saw the crimson eyes. "Sasuke-kun! When did you get your-

But Naruto silenced her with a quick glance, his eyes asking her for silence. "Sh. Listen. I can hear-

"Oh, the little Genin has some spunk. You actually heard me coming. Good for you. Now lets ee if you can stop me from attacking this time." Zabuza said and suddenly ten water clones of Zabuza appeared around them, encircling the small group as they each drew their massive blade, each one holding it over his right shoulder.

Their voices echoed out simultaneously as several of them motioned forward in a classic 'bring it on' gesture. "All right then brats. Lets see if you've improved any in four days."

Kakashi's eyes closed in their customary upside down U shape as he truned to Naruto and smiled, his tone surprisingly carefree, despite the dangerous situation that they were in. "Sasuke, why don't you us the results of the training that you and Naruto put so much effort into. I'm quite curious about it myself." Kakashi said. Naruto merely smirked, snapping of a mock salute that made Kakashi suppress a chuckle as the raven haired boy did a hand seal and vanished. _'Well, he's certainly cheery now. Perhaps there's hope for him yet. I guess his ego isn't THAT big after all..._

A moment later, a red and white blur shot past the clones, and each one of them stiffened as the blur crossed them. Naruto grinned as he drove himself towards the ninth clone, who had the presence of mind to raise his blade in a guard. _'So, these clones DO think for themselves.' _In response to the last second guard, he merely bounded over it, driving a kunai into the neck of the clone. Then, without pausing, he leapt off of the neck of it, and dashed towards the final clone, who was bringing his sword down, in an attempt to split the speedy genin in two. That did him little good, for due to the weight of his blade, he lost a precious second bringing it down off his shoulder, and that was all the time Naruto needed to move to the right, the blade smashing into the cement, cracking the spot where he had been a moment earlier.

When he reappeared a moment later, he had two kunai in each hand, and the the clones had several slashes on various parts of their bodies and fell down into puddles of water, losing their form and shape as they fell.

"Oh, He's improved quite a bit. We might actually have to get our hands dirty." Zabuza said and the mist cleared a bit and there stood the real Zabuza with the hunter nin next to him. His tone was laced with amusement as he spoke to his rescuer, knowing full well that Kakashi and his team had figured out that Haku was a fake hunter nin, who had used the mask as a disguise to rescue her unprepared master from Kakashi and his team. But it did not matter if they knew that now, there was no longer a need for secrecy.

THIS time, Zabuza had planned for everything, and ignoring his pride and he had left nothing to chance, not wanting to suffer yet another near death state that Haku had been forced to put him in. He winced as he felt imaginary pain from where the needles had embedded themselves in his neck, the pain making him suppress a shudder as he shook it off. _'There is no WAY I'm going through that again. Not ever.'_

"It looks like you have a rival for speed, my friend." said Zabuza, remembering Haku's request to keep his identity secret, and honoring it at this very moment. The ice user smiled beneath her mask, glad that her master had chosen to honor her request. It made her very happy to know that this man, the Demon of the Mist, was capable of small kindnesses, form time to time as she nodded her head in response. _'Thank you Zabuza. Now I do not have to worry about him holding back against me.'_

She pulled out a Senbon from her back pouch, and calmly motioned forward, as she held it in her left hand, the other free for another use. Lucky for her, her mask distorted her voice, making her sound like a young boy, instead of her usual feminine voice, effectively disgusing her perfectly. "You look to be quite strong. This should be an enjoyable battle for the both of us."

The first to move was Haku. She rushed at Naruto with a senbon (long needle). But Naruto quickly reached into his holster, and now pulled out a twin edged kunai, the sharp edges damp from the heavy and thick mist. Metal sparked against metal sparking as his double edged weapon pushed against the thin, yet strong needle. _'Okay, that won't work. Maybe if I try and knock him off balance..._He then tried to kick Haku's legs out from under her, but she simply blocked with her own foot, drawing them into a battle of wills, neither of them able to move their intertwined legs.

"Looks like we are at a stalemate." Naruto said confidently but Haku shook her head, a sad smile on her face beneath the mask.

"Sorry, but I have two advantages. First I have occupied one of your hands- Naruto frowned at this, and only then did he notice the large puddles that the clones had left behind. _'Uh-oh. I have a bad feeling about this..._

His feelings turned out to be right as Haku went, beginning to go through a set of one handed seals. "Also, there is the water around us, perfect for this jutsu." Kakashi gasped when he saw how rapidly, and how many seals the gril was going through, as one handed seals were usually the sign of one who is exceptionally skilled at ANY kind of jutsu.

"One handed? This girl is something else." he said.

Naruto saw what she was doing, and quickly reached out to grab her hand, stopping her last seal and disrupting the jutsu, causing the water, which had slowly begun to ascend into the air, to drop back onto the ground adn evaporate away. He grinned, his sharingan eyes staring into the slits of the mask. "No way buddy. You left yourself to open for that. AND _I _still had a free hand too. I ain't letting you try ANY sort of jutsu on me." Then the red eyes narrowed as he felt her stiffen in his grip.

" Now, why are you still wearing that mask of yours?" She stiffened, increasing her efforts to break free, and only further arousing Naruto's curiosity." Oh? You don't want to take it off?" His Sharingan eyes gleamed evilly as an idea popped into his head, tone mischevious. "Then I'll do it for you."Let's see...

He raised his head back, a grin on his face now.

"WHAT YOU'RE HIDING BEHIND THAT MASK OF YOURS!"

His head shot forward, and slammed into the hardened mask with a loud crunch. Nothing happened. And do, he repeated the process several times, until the girl let out a startled gasp, and watched behind the mask as a crack began to appear.

_'NO! It cannot break here!'_

Desperate, she yanked a hand free, and covered her face with it, as the mask began to fall.

But it was no good.

Naruto saw her face, and his own froze in shock and horror as he recognized her. _'No way. It can't be her. She's way too mice..._

"H-Haku?"


	9. Revelations

**OKAY EVERYONE! DUE TO MUUUUUUCH CONFUSION, NARUTO SHALL HEREBY BE REFERRED TO AS SASUKE, AND SASUKE SHALL HEREBY BE REFERRED TO AS NARUTO. THAT IS ALL. HERE WE GO!**

Sasuke's eyes widened in horror as he watched the mask fall to the ground, revealing Haku's face. "Haku?! What are you doing here?! I didn't know you were with Zabuza!"

A sad smile formed on the face of the girl, her brown eyes filled with regret, her cover officially blown now." I apologize Sasuke. I am truly sorry for what I'm about to do. I truly do not wish to hurt you, but I must, for Zabuza's dreams to be fulfilled." She said as she a faint silver glimmer surrounded her for a moment, then she headbutted him in the forehead, knocking him back sevearl feet from the sheer force of the hit, and drawing blood from the hit.

Sasuke bit back a cry of pain as he skidded backwards, sandaled feet sliding against the wet surface of the bridge. "What on earth?! Haku, what did you just-Oh." His blood red Sharingan eyes narrowed as Haku charged forward, a snebon in each hand, giving him a good look at her eyes as she neared him.

They were a bright silver, and they were slitted, and that could only mean one thing. _'She has one of the nine sealed in her?!' _The Kyubbi chuckled aloud at the startled realization of his host. **'This new body must still be slowing you up kit. I've noticed that since you first met her in the clearing. She has the seven tailed wolf, making her nearly equal to me in power. Watch yourself, and be sure NOT to use any of my chakra excessively, unless I say otherwise. I don't want Hatake realizing anything about the body switch...**

Sasuke gave a mental nod, and charged right back towards Haku, a kunai in each hand now and clashing it against her senbon, sparks flying everywhere. They kept this up for a while, but it seemed that Haku was a little faster than Sasuke, because he got hit a couple of times, drawing blood on his arms and legs, as the thin needle sliced into him. Yet he was her superior when it came to strength, and easily landed several blows of his own, never once slacking off, even when he landed a hard right hook into her right cheek, knocking her to the ground, her body rolling for a bit as she used the momentum to leap back up, then shoot back towards him like a human missily, driving a sandaled foot into his gut, as she gave him a flying drop kick, sending HIM sailing past Sakura, who REALLY wished she wasn't stuck on guard duty right now. "Sasuke-kun! Get up!"

"If this keeps up, your student will die Hatake." Zabuza said with a smirk on his face as he watched the Uchiha hit the pavement, then stagger to his feet a moment later, albeit a bit shakily, his body taking real beating from the demonic chakra enhanced attacks.

The Leaf jonin angrily grit his teeth behind his mask, not knowing what he could do to help his student, who was now BARELY holdign up...

'_Shit, If I interfere now, Zabuza will have a clean shot at Tazuna. I doubt Sakura can match his speed and power.'_

_'I hate to say this, but that brow-less freak is right.'_Sasuke thought, annoyed at what he was about to do, placing his hands briefly into the ram seal, hoping the mist would obscure this. _'I didn't know I would have to do this so soon, but I guess I have to use a bit of the Kyuubi's chakra. I just hope sensei doesn't notice, or Naruto and me are gonna have A LOT of explaining to do..._

There was a brief glimmer of red around his body, barely visible through the mist, but still visible nonetheless, and Sakura's green eyes widened as she saw the faint outline, barely visible through the mist, surround her boyfriend who was still several feet from her. "S-Sasuke-kun? Are you okay?"

The Uchiha looked over his shoulder,grateful that his Sharingan was still active, lest she see his slitted eyes. "I'm fine. I'm just trying out a new technique." Then, he turned to face Haku, who was on him again, his twin Kunai slipping up under her senbon and holding above his head, a battle for supremacy, both of them, using sheer strength now, which was the Uchiha's forte.

Sasuke smirked. "This should be enough to beat you!" Then he smacked her hands up, letting the Kyuubi fight for him not sure if he could fight Haku as himself, he needed...more agression, more ruthlessness. And the Fox was MORE than happy to do do that for him, but it was difficult, to control the desire to flood his vessel with all of his power, for if he did, Kakashi would certainly notice that something was up. And so, as he knocked the ice user back, he charged at Haku with twice the speed he had as before. Her eyes widened with surprise, at this, then she came at him, just as fast, if not more so, having no need to hold back. SHE had nothing to hide, while he did.

"What the hell?!" Zabuza yelled. "What did he do Hatake?! What have you been teaching these brats?! "

Kakashi was just as confused as he was. Whatever he did, it made his movements twice as fast as before. "Me? They all insisted on training by themselves. I have no idea what they learned or did in the past few days. And as for Sasuke, I have no idea what he just did, but I'm glad that he did it." He said as he smirked. "I don't have to intervene anymore."

Haku's thick dark robe was slashed clear down the middle by a chakra enhanced slash from Sasuke, the two of them a blur of speed, now, forcing her to shake it off, exposing her pink kimono underneath, just like the one she had worn in the clearing. Again and again, her senbon met Sasuke's kunai, until he dropped flat to the groundm a smirk on his face as he spoke, when itn fact it was the Kyuubi speaking. "Not bad girl, but this fox still has a few tricks, much more than your wolf does!" Then she went sailing a couple of feet back by a kick to her stomach, as the Uchiha spun on the ground, knocking her off balance, before delivering said kick.

Haku timed her landing perfectly however, and she slapped her hands agaisnt the tiles of the bridge, pushing herself up and landing on her feet in one smooth motion. Now, she slowly stood up and she appeared to have a black bruise on her forehead, right where she had been so brutally headbutted. Sasuke winced for a moment as he saw this, then ignored it as he focused on the battle. _'No! I can't lose focus! She'll kill me if I do!'_

Zabuza's eyes narrowed as he briefly looked over his shoulder at the rising girl, annoyed that she was still holding back. "Haku! Stop fooling around! Use it now!" Zabuza screamed.

"Yes Zabuza." she said, as the silver chakra slowly faded into life around her, indicating that whatever she was doing, it was going to be BIG.

Haku started forming hand seals while water started rising between Sasuke and herself. After forming the last seal, she yelled out, "Crystal Ice Mirrors." Sasuke stared at it, unable ot move from fear of waht this was. _'Come on! MOVE-_then he felt himself shoved out of the way, Naruto taking his palce in the still forming dome, shooting his raven haired friend into the railing and out of harm's way, as the mist covered him. "This is my fight now teme! MOVE IT!" Then about twenty-one of what appeared to be ice mirrors appeared in a dome like structure in between them, cutting Sasuke off from Naruto, a horrified look on his battered face as he watched, Haku enter one of the mirrors and then begin to appear on each and every one of the other mirrors. _'This is bad! I hope my old body still has all that endurance..._

"What's this?" Naruto asked as he stared around the dome, reluctant to use his Sharingan, yet afraid that he would soon be forced to do so. Haku's voice then ehcoed around him from each of the mirrors, as she drew multiple senbon needles from her back pouch. "It would seem that you are my opponent now. I must thank you however. I truly did not wish to fight you friend- her slitted eyes narrowed as she prepared to throw the deadly needles.- "But, I have no qualms fighting YOU!" As soon as she finished her sentence, Naruto was forced to activate his Sharingan as saw the barrage of senbon coming from each mirror. '_I can't dodge them all! Some are bound to get-_and several did, despite his best efforts, of leaping ducking, sidestepping and blocking, several got through, piercing and cutting his body. He yelled out an agonizing scream. "AGGGGGH!"

"Naruto!" Sakura and Sasuke screamed simultaneously, as they heard the new blond's scream of pain.

--

Kakashi rushed toward his location, but was stopped by Zabuza, who grabbed the hilt of his blade, ready to swing it. "Your fight is with me!" he said as he swung his sword at him, forcing him to spring backwards and leap out of the way, just as Zabuza had planned.

The sudden retreat gave Zabuza MORE than enough time to begin the second phase of his plan and thicken the mist until Kakashi was rendered practically blind by it, making his Sharingan practically useless in this battle know, one of his best trump cards gone now

"What's this?" Kakashi asked. "This mist is too thick Zabuza, even for you. I can understand why you would try to blind my Sharingan, but this will also give you a disadvantage."

Zabuza laughed, "You think you know everything Hatake, just wait until you screw up. I don't need to join your village, I'll PROVE to you that we're better of on our own, just me and Haku, so consider your offer... REJECTED!"

Kakashi sighed as he remembered the offer he had told Naruto to give to the hunter nin. _'Too bad. We could really have used someone as good as him..._

He was just beginning to lift up his headband, but he felt something move toward his eye. _'WHAT?! He's faster than last time!' _Instinctively, he placed his other hand in front of it, and just in time to. His hand was impaled by one of Zabuza's kunai a moment later, drawing blood as the dagger pierced through.

Kakashi's visible eye widened as he got a good look at the jonin's face. '_ No way! His eyes are closed!'_

"Being the master of silent killing always has its advantages. I can find anybody's location by more than just my vision. I can sense their very chakra, their very prescence, even with my eyes closed. THis mist is MUCH more of a handicap for YOU than it is for me." Zabuza said as he disappeared into the mist, tone smug at having gained the upper hand against his adversary.

Kakashi raised his Headband to reveal his Sharingan eye, the blood red Copy Wheel looking this way and that for his hidden assailant, nowhere near ready to give up yet. "This mist might be thick Zabuza, but regardless I _will _find a way to get at you. So don't get so cocky!" He heard the jonin chuckle from somewhere in the dense mist, his voice laced with amusement. "I'd like to see you try Hatake!"

The Copycat took a deep breath as he closed BOTH his eyes now, trying to sense where the silent killer was hiding. ' Okay. _He's not above me, he's not in the water below me, and he's nowhere near me... Come on Kakashi think! Where would you be if you where him..._ His eyes snapped open with realization as he remembered the _real _mission for the Mist nin. "Tazuna!"

Zabuza appeared in front of Sakura, blade held to the left as he prepared to swing it about, laughing as Sakura brought up a single kunai for a desperate last ditch defense."Too late girl! IT'S OVER"

Zabuza swung his sword to the side and was pleased to realize it drew blood, but then his eyes narrowed in anger as he realized that it wasn't from his intended target.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura screamed, as blood splatter against the tiles, staining it red.


	10. Rage

Sakura looked on in shock as the blade dug into the side of Kakashi, drawing blood, but leaving a surprisingly shallow wound.

"What's the matter Kakashi? You've been getting sloppier by the minute." Zabuza teased as he shouldered his massive blade.

'_Damn it. I didn't want to resort to this, but If I don't get serious, Zabuza will succeed with his mission, and we'll fail ours.'_ Kakashi thought, as he opened one of the many pockets in his vest.

Kakashi took out a scroll from tha pocket, and smearing blood on it while he opened it. "Zabuza, I don't have time for your games, this will end now!" He closed the scroll and started doing hand seals. He yelled out in his mind, _' Earth style Summoning: Fanged Pursuit Jutsu!'_

Zabuza felt that something was amiss, but due to his closed eyes, he wasn't sble to pinpoint it until it was far too late. Then a pack of ninja dogs jumped up from the ground, exploding from the stone, and before Zabuza knew what was happening they all bit him in several places, effectively holding him in place, rendering him incapable of any movement, other than his neck, and forcing him to finally open his eyes.

"That's what happens when you keep your eyes closed during a fight Momochi." Kakashi said. " You lose an important sense, and as a result, you risk the possibility of an ambush." The Mist Jonin spat a curse at him, and struggled to break free, his efforts gaining him nothing but more pain, and rawing more blood. Kakashi shook his head as he raised a hand in from of his face, palm open and held up to the sky. "You won't be able to get loose. Right now, my hounds are just playing with you. But one word from me, and they'll tear you pieces. In other words, you aren't going anywhere. Which means that you will have to die now."

"Humph, and you wanted me to join your group." Zabuza said, as he glared defiantly at the jonin looking for anything he could use to escape.

There was nothing. He was stuck.

Kakashi said nothing as he raised one hand, and blue chakra began to crackled within it, making the chirping sound of thousands of birds, filling the air with the noise of his chakra, as he his other hand held the wrist of the chakra charging hand. "This is the end Zabuza. I'm sorry to have to do this, but you leave me no other choice." As his hand crackled with energy, Haku heard the sound, and peered through the now thinning mist, distracted by the sight of Zabuza trapped in a deadly situation. '_NO!'_ she thought.

'_Here's my chance!'_Naruto thought as he did a series of hand seals, channeling the chakra carefully and precisely as he went through them. He yelled in his mind, _'Katon: Karyu Endan!'_A large fire dragon appeared as he sucked in air and breathed it out, the flaming incarnation easily melting through all of Haku's mirrors. Sasuke smiled triumphantly as he watched the jutsu melt through the ice mirrors, glad that he had taught his friend that Jutsu, even though the blond seemed annoyed that the girl wasn't even paying attention to him anymore. Her eyes where glued to the scene in front of her. Then his red eys widened as Haku leapt out of the mirror, the mist clearing as she did so, revealing Kakashi about to kill Zabuza. _'Haku?! What the hell are you doing?!'_

Immediatley realizing what was about to occur, Sasuke drew on the Kyuubi's power further, despite the warning of the fox, and blurred forward determined to stop the death of the girl. _'I have to make it in time! I HAVE TO!'_

_--_

Kakashi had finished powering up his Rakiri to it's full potential, and it crackled form his hand like lightning itself, eager to find a target. His eyes locked with Zabuza's and his tone was as cold as ice as he spoke. "Any last words, Zabuza?" he asked.

The man merely glared back at him, determined to be defiant to the end. "Eat shit, Hatake!"

Kakashi rushed towards Zabuza, his attack tearing a large scar in the stone tiles of the bridge.

"Zabuza!" Haku screamed as she got in front of him, prepared to take the hit for her master, and obviously willing to die for him

"Oh shit!!" Sasuke cursed as saw he looked at the scene and poured chakra on his feet to go even faster, a red and white blur now, barely even visible to the naked eye. _'No, No,no,no,no,no,no, NOOOOOOO!'_

Kakashi's technique collided with flesh, effectively pouring out blood in the air as it connected.

Haku's eyes widened with horror. She felt a hand and blood at her chest area. She couldn't move. Zabuza was in even greater shock than his partner. _'What?' Why did-_He couldn't believe what happened, and by the looks of it, neither could Kakashi, who looked horrified at what he had just done. _'Sasuke! Why did you take that hit?!'_

There, in front of him, stood Sasuke with Kakashi's hand going right through his right shoulder blade, drawing a massive amount of blood that hit everyone, the crimson liquid splashing everywhere. Sasuke coughed up some blood, which landed on Haku's face, staining her cheek. She didn't even flinch. She was too shocked at what she was seeing. Despite Sasuke's current situation, he smiled fondly at her, as her eyes filled with tears, returning to their soft doe brown as she finally realizedwhat had just happened "Why? Why did you take the finishing bow for me? I'm... she hung her head, the tears dripping out now- Then her head snapped back up, and her voice was amix of emotions, angry, hurt, confused, sad, and so much more. "WHY DID YOU SAVE ME?!" Sasuke merely shook his head, his voice barely a whsiper as he placed a hand against her cheek, wipping the blood off her face. "I…told…you…(cough)…I…wouldn't…(gasp)…let…you…(cough)…get…hurt." His voice was very weak voice, becoming weaker as he went on. "Is... that... a... good... enough... reason? Did... you... want a better one?" Then, his eyes rolled back and his body limped forward, but he was not out cold just yet, and just before he lost consciousness, he fell forward, his lips meeting Haku's stopping only when his knees buckled beneath him.

She put him down gently, and he stared up at her, his eyes fading, becoming lifeless, still speaking to her. "Sorry...about that... Tired...so...tired...

'_No…it cant be! He couldn't have! Not this! Not again! '_Naruto thought as ran to them he became traumatized by the scene. It waas just like before, and he couldn't do anything about it once again...

"Sasuke…" Kakashi said with shock detectable in his voice.

Haku looked at Sasuke's motionless body. She checked for any signs of life. She couldn't find none. She closed her eyes and tried not to let her emotions overwhelm her, but all that did was bring back flashbacks of her conversation with him the second one, when they had briefly run into each other, the night when he was going out for some fresh air, and she for mor eherbs. The memory was hazy, now but she DID remember some of what he had told her:

"_I've been through a lot in my life. I was born in a village full of prejudice, full of hate for me, and only recently did that change.'_

"_I was always alone."_

"_Then a miracle happened, and I made new friend. I was so happy. Everyone stopped hating me..._

"_He's not the only one who is willing to take care of you Haku."_

_"You have to be willing to let others in."_

She started shedding the tears she was trying so hard to keep back, shaking her head back and forth as she did so, shaking his body, trying to get him to stay with he. "NO! Sasuke-kun! Stay here! Don't go! STAY WITH ME!" She buried her head into his red shirt, and openly sobbed, her wails of misery filling the air. "DON'T LEAVE ME ALL ALONE AGAIN!".

Kakashi's ninja dogs disappeared with a poof sound, releasing Zabuza as they faded. Zabuza smirked and started swinging his sword at Kakashi, only to have it stopped by a pissed off Haku, the girl catching the blade with one hand, and holding it tightly there, form where she crouched next to Sasuke.

"What the hell are you doing Haku?!" yelled Zabuza

"SHUT UP!" she screamed, voice anguished, a miserable expression on her face.

Zabuza was shocked beyond belief. He has never heard Haku scream this pissed off before. Never mind that, he has NEVER heard Haku yell at all before.

"H-Haku?" He said stunned.

Haku was shedding tears, yet, her face was livid and had it aimed right at him.

"This is your fault! Why did you refuse his offer? Why!? TELL ME?!"

"I already told you, they wouldn't give a shit about us!" He screamed back.

"BULLSHIT! Does THAT looked like he didn't give a shit about me?" she said pointing at Sasuke.

"He saved my life Zabuza…he sacrificed himself to save me…" she said as she started to sob.

"So why…Zabuza…why did you refuse." she said as she started pounding on his chest. Zabuza has never been so lost in thought in his life. Haku openly hugged Zabuza and started crying in his chest, absoultely hysteric now.

"Why does everyone I care for have to die…" She said.

Zabuza's only response was to hug her back. He didn't know what to say to her. _'I'm sorry, I didn't know ho wimportant he was to you..._

"Well well, look what we have here." Gatou said as he and hundreds of his lackeys appeared vaguely through the mist. "Looks like you took care of one Zabuza, but that's the wrong target, you moron. I wanted the old man dead!"

Haku's gaze locked on the man, her voice full of hate as her eyes became slitted once more. "YOU!" Haku seethed.

Gatou's eyes narrowed as he recognized Haku, voice filled with amusement."Hmm? Oh, your that damn brat that broke my arm!" He yelled, then settled down and smirked. "It appears that I will get my revenge on you after all. Guards!" Gatou yelled. "Take care of them, but leave the little girl alive. I want to have some "fun" with her." He said evilly

"Yes sir!" They all said in unison, slwoly advancing forward. Zabuza's eyes narrowed, then he turned to face Kakashi, and jerked his head in the direction of the oncoming guards, voice calm despite the grim situation.

"Kakashi, looks like were not enemies anymore. What do you say we handle these bunch of fools?"

Kakashi remained silent. He kept on looking towards Sasuke's still body.

"Oi Kakashi! Did you hear me?!" Zabuza yelled

"…I killed him." he said dejectedly

"Hatake, right now is not the time to morn. You'll have enough time for that later. Help us out over here!" He yelled.

"…right." He said. He pushed his current emotions aside and mentally calculated the best course of action, sizing up the chargin guards, who now had their various assortment of weapons drawn.

Haku was not that patient.

"I'll kill you, you bastard!" Haku yelled, her grey chakra blazing around her, to form a single tail behind her, as she bared her teeth, which slowly grew out to become fangs her hands becoming clawed now as she was consumed by rage. "I WILL TEAR YOU TO PIECES! YOU WILL PAAAAAAY!"

"No Haku, wait!" Zabuza yelled.

His warning went on deaf ears as she rushed towards Gatou's guards and fought bravely to get trough, slaughtering anyone who came her way, with either ice or her chakra, her claws raking through the enemy line a she screamed in rage and anguish, slowly nearing Gatou, deadset on his death. "YOU'RE DEAD YOU LITTLE FREAK! I'M GONNA TEAR YOU HEAD OFF!"

"Shit! Hatake, we have to attack NOW!" Zabuza yelled as he ran after her, swinging his blade like a madman, slicing a nearby Samurai in two. Kakashi followed through, kunai drawn, as Haku rained hell upon their opponents.


	11. Overcome

**'_Inside Sasuke's_ _mind…_**

"Oh, what a headache." Sasuke groaned as he grabbed his head with both hands, willing the pain to go away, and it refusing to do so. He looked around as his surroundings and cursed his luck as he recognized that he was in his the Kyuubi's holding area, the wet and dank area all too familiar to him by now, and he was none to happy about being here. _'Ah man! Not now! I have to save Haku!'_ He was grumbling and cursing under his breath the entire time as he rapidly ran through the wet corridors, until he finally found his least favorite part of his subconscious, Kyuubi's den, its red eyes glaring out at him from the behind the bars of its seal.

The Fox let out a chuckle as he saw the angry look on the face of Sasuke his expression much like the one he had given him in his former abused, hated body before.

"**Well well, look who's come to pay me a visit again." **Kyubi smirked. **"And I thought that with all your great, amazing power, you wouldn't need to be here for a few years. I guess I gave you too much credit before. You really do rely on me just a little too much."**

"Shut up, you stupid fox! Why the hell am I here now? Don't tell me I died!" he said, REALLY hoping that this wasn't the case. He had far too much going for him now, to up and die.

Luckily, the fox informed him otherwise, its tone filled with annoyance, yet also holding just a trace of pride for his vessel

"**Close.****Your**** in a dead like state right now. ****Your**** very lucky that I need you alive to survive kit, otherwise I wouldn't help such an idiot as yourself."**

"I'm not asking for your help fox! I'll find a way out myself!" He turned to go, but a wall of red chakra rose up in front of him, sealing of his escape, a tendril of red chakra wrapping its way up and around his legs and forcing him to turn around to face a now angry fox, who was growing VERY impatient at the stubbornness of his vessel.

"**FOOL! Like I'll give you a choice to deny my power! You couldn't do anything about it when I sent you here! What makes you think Hatake will press you for answers, if I wipe his mind of this moment?! Now shut up, Wake up, and go save your pathetic friends before I change my mind!" **The fox angrily yelled as he poured enough of his chakra to heal Sasuke's fatal wound, makin the eyes of the Uchiha snap open...

_**At the bridge…**_

Kakashi, Zabuza, Haku, and even Naruto were gravely injured from all of the enemies that where attacking them, there were simply to many of them, and to top it off the ninja were already weary from their earlier battle, making them easy targets for the hired thugs of Gato. It was suicide to think they could stand a chance against an army of fully rested samurais and ninjas in their current state. There was too much of a power difference.

"Any other great plans Hatake?" Zabuza said sarcastically as he picked himself up from the floor, Kakashi struggling to do the same , and failing miserably, his body dropping flat against the bridge. Zabuza hefted his large sword over his shoulder once more, but stopped halfway as pain coursed through the large gash on his arm. Now everybody was pretty much spent from all the fighting, and Zabuza was the only one who could stand, albeit barely, not counting Haku, who was still tearing through the thousands of guards and thugs, but even she was beginning to tire now, and when she stopped, they were dead meat. It was going to take a miracle for them to survive this.

Haku hissed in pain as a shuriken slashed across her cheek, drawing blood, and forcing her to use more of her demonic chakra to heal herself. Angry, she spun around to face her assailant, but instead saw a large axe on a collision course with her head, a large mountain of a man swinging it down with both hands, the dark hatchet capable of easily cleaving her skull in two.

With a fanged smirk, she began to move to the side, only for a robed samurai to grab her by the wrist and hold her in place, preventing her from moving, her wrist locked in a death grip by the masked man, who laughed behind it as her eyes widened, and she tried to break free. "Say goodbye." Now SHE needed a miracle. And she needed it fast.

A instant later, that miracle came from somewhere she least suspected.

A voice came from behind her, deep and dark, "Goodbye."

Haku turned around as soon as she heard Sasuke voice, her slitted eyes going wide as she saw him, the demon within her stirring further at the sight. She became oddly curious at the sight, tilting her head to one side, as he casually leapt forward and kicked the samurai away form her, sending him flying over the rail and into the water with a loud splash, as he caught the axe wielding mans attack with a now clawed hand, holding the large weapon fast, despite the efforts of the man to yank it free.

Sasuke smirked, as he raised a clawed hand, then a moment later, a red claw of chakra shot out, and simply tore the man apart, burning the upper half of his body away, as the lower half collapsed to the ground, with a loud thud. When Sasuke turned back, she could see that he now had wide whisker marks on his cheeks and his hair was now longer and rougher, his canine teeth had elongated, and most noticeably, his eyes had slit and become red, coma marks still spinning in them.

Slitted red eyes met her own slitted silver, as Sasuke stared down at her.

(Earlier...

Everybody froze when they felt a wave of a very powerful, yet demonic Chakra. Kakashi instantly recognized this chakra signature, his eyes narrowing at the sight. _'The Kyuubi?! But how is it coming from-_

Then the red chakra washed over him, making him lose his train of thought, and think that Sasuke was perfectly alright, and that he had some other demon, NOT the Kyuubi sealed in him. _'Wait a sec. Thats not the Kyuubi. That's one of the other nine! Sasuke, you have some explaining to do when this is over..._

"W-Where the 9 Fucking hells is that coming from?!" Zabuza yelled as he stumbled back to the floor, full of shock at the massive spike of red chakra.

"N-No way!" Naruto yelled as he saw Sasuke's body rise up by itself. His body was still limp, but the chakra was holding him up, making it appear like his dead body was floating towards them. Then his eyes snapped open, and the red chakra faded, dropping him to the ground, his feet hitting the pavement and propelling him forward as soon as he landed, and charged off into the crowd of guards...

(Present...

Haku cocked her head to one side once more, her voice still the same despite the influence of her demon. And demon or not, she was a little afraid of him, when he looked like this. "S-Sauke-kun?" she asked meekly as she saw the cold look in his eyes, making his gaze falter briefly, and fill with worry as he ran a hand across her face, noticing the cuts and bruises about her arms, and ESPECIALLY the cut on her cheeks as he quietly looked at her.

"Did they do this to you?" he asked her. She nodded her head, then nuzzled her head into his still open palm, making soft purring sound. "But I'm okay now. Thanks to you." A bit of his normal personality leaked through at that, and he smiled a bit, before resting his head against hers, forehead to forehead, their eyes locked with each others. Then, as if of its own accord, the mist became thick about them once more, cutting them off from everyone's view, making the guards fearful to go into the mist, for fear of being ambushed.

In the center of the thick fog, they still stared at each other, as if they were searching for something in the eyes of the other. Haku apparently found what she was looking for, as she was the first one to move, as she brought her face closer to his, her breath now hot on his face, the water from the thick mist soaking through their clothes, and dripping down their faces. Sasuke froze for a moment, remembering his relationship with Sakura, a bit of his own influence leaking through once more. _'Wait. This...Is... wrong?' _He struggled to remember why, his thoughts dull and slow, his mind thick slow from the influence of the Kyuubi, as whispered indecipherable words in his mind, making one thing VERY clear to him. He _wanted to do this._

_'No... wrong... can't... do this... want to do this... Sakura? Haku..._

And it was getting harder and harder for him to remember why he shouldn't, the picutre of Sakura fading in his mind, and slowly fading to a picture of Haku, then Sakura. Back and forth, the two halves of him at war with another, his body telling him one thing, and his mind another, as the two fought. And his mind was rapidly losing the fight, the image of Haku, her long dark hair, her soft doe brown eyes, and everything else of her, overpowering his memories of Sakura.

Then it was simply to much for our valiant hero, and he succumbed to his passion, softly pressing his lips against hers, then harder and faster as she gave a soft whimper, followed by a moan as their lips parted, her hands wrapping around his neck and yanking him in for more, as their lips passionately met, Sasuke's head slightly angle to the right, her own head pointed straight up as they kissed ramming their lips against one anothers, as they broke for air time and time again, unwilling and unwanting to stop, as she pressed her voluptuous kimono clad body against his, as he could feel nearly every inch of her body against his, thanks to the wet mist, that had by now completely soaked the clothing of the two 15 year olds , and pressing herself tightly against him, as their chakra began to whirl about them, as they stood motionless in the fog...

--

Tired of waiting, one of the guards, clad in the traditional armor of a samurai, took a step forward, and then another, now confidently striding into the mist, as two more samurai followed moments later.

A moment later, their screams of terror and pain echoed through the area of thick fog, making even Zabuza shiver as he heard the sound of ripping flesh. _'Holy- She must be REALLY mad..._

Haku shook the blood off of her pink kimono, the watery fog easily sliding the mist of, as she hissed angrily at the remains of the warriors, none to happy with them for interrupting their passionate kissing, her slight annoyance enhanced into furious anger by her demon, as she stomped on the hand of a man who was still moving, voice filled with an unusual blood lust that was not her own. "Jerks. Thats no fair, ganging up on us like that." Then a hopeful expression lit her face as she looked up at him, her bloodlust, and something else, being further aroused by the wolf within her. "Wanna help me out?"

Sasuke bore his fangs in a smile as he he reached out a hand for hers, which she took in her own, their chakra whipping around them now, red and silver. "Gladly. Let's tear them apart."

--

An instant later, the mist slowly began to clear, and they turned around and started walking towards Gatou and his men, Intensifying their chakra with every step, creating a massive energy that was scaring Gatou and his men shitless, their bodies shaking with fear, as the two demon vessels appeared through the mist, speaking in almost perfect tandem.

We're giving you the count of three to get the hell out of our sight. One!" he yelled as they raised both of their free hands over their head as if they were carrying something, their other hand still intertwined with the others.

Everyone was too scared to move, and Gatou was desperately stammering out useless orders, making his men even MORE confused.

"Two!" Haku yelled as red energy began to coalesce above the open palms, quickly forming a sphere of dark red and silver energy, growing larger and larger by the second, making the bridge tremble under the sheer intensity of it as it increased in size, sucking a nearby man into the vortex and burning his body to ashes, scaring them furhter.

Everybody started scrambling at the sight, some even jumping into the water to escape, desperate to stay alive. Gatou started yelling at them, promising unemployment and what not. "Get back here you cowards! I paid you to fight, and you're gonna fight or else!"

"THREE!"

They moved with lightning fast speed, the gathered energy screaming forward, a large red and black sphere, bent on the death of Gatou and his men, and screaming forward, as the slammed their hands down, palms open against the stone...

Suddenly, all of Gatou's remaining men, including himself, simply went from their fleeing positions, to simply falling apart, in random varying bloody pieces, Gatou himself turning to ash. It was a gruesome sight indeed. Everybody that was still there looked at the two in shock. Sasuke then opened his eyes to reveal the coal black that they where accustomed to. He looked at the people in front of them. "Take that. Jerks."He said softly and promptly fainted, Haku giving a startles gasp as he did so, her own eyes returning to normal as the influence of the wolf faded away.

"Sasuke-kun!" Haku yelled as she gathered the little strength she had left to catch him before he fell.

After a short while of questioning Naruto's condition. They heard a sharp gasp coming from behind them.

"What happened here? Did you guys do all this?!" Tazuna asked as he saw all of Gatou's men and Gatou as a pile of ash, only his glasses remaining.

"No. All of this was done by Sasuke, and Haku." Naruto said in a state of disbelief, as he ran a hand through his wet blond hair.

"They killed THIS many people by themselves?" Sakura asked more shocked at Sasuke's ability to do such a thing than actually killing someone, the mist having shown them nothing of the kiss, OR the slaughter.

"I don't remember much, but I know that he did this to protect us." Haku said, voice calm and firm as she held Sasuke's head in her lap, ignoring the angry glare that Sakura briefly gave her, and vaguely wondering why.

Sakura looked at everybody and notice Zabuza and Haku wasn't trying to kill the rest of her team, and quirked a pink eyebrow as she remembered the deal her sensei had mentioned to her and Naruto.

"So does that mean you're on our side now?" Sakura asked, anger fading, replaced by curiosity.

"Yes." both Zabuza and Haku said in unison, as their eyes met for a moment, confirming that they agreed on the matter, and both of them did.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief, as she sank down next to Sasuke, running a hand over his forehead, a smile on her face as she did so, a faint green glow emitting from her hand as she healed the bruise that Haku had given him, drawing startled looks from the lot of them. "Thank kami everything is over." She then turned to Haku, and held out a hand for the girl's bruised arms, the bare sleevless flesh bearing a bruise on the elbow and shoulder Let me look at your wounds so that I can heal them."

Kakashi looked at Sakura with shock, his eyes going wide with surprise, the shock also evident in his voice. "Since when can you heal? You don't even have the proper- Sakura let out an exasperated sigh as she pulled her hand away from the head of her boyfriend, her tone smug as she revealed the flawless skin.

"Sensei, you really should pay more attention to us. Why do you think we wanted to train on our own? There's a lot of things you don't know. If you have the decency to show up on time or not leave when we practice, you might notice more what we are capable of, instead of being so focused on that book of yours." She replied, piquing Haku's curiosity about the matter.

Kakashi lead out a groan. "What else are you guys not telling me?" Sakura chuckled a bit. "If you want to know, you should ask Sasuke. He's the one who's taught us what we know." She said, beaming happily, proud of her Uchiha boyfriend's knowledge of jutsu.

"I'll make sure I'll do that." '_Though I should apologize for almost killing him first.'_Kakashi thought.

_--_

_The next day…_

Haku was currently watching as Sasuke slept peacefully on his bed. He still hadn't woken up from the incident that had happened at the bridge. She has been by his side almost all night. She wanted to be the first to greet him when he got up. Haku was looking at him when she suddenly noticed his face contract.

"Sasuke-kun?" She asked with a hopeful tone in her voice as she shook his chest a bit.

Sasuke slowly opened his coal black eyes and was greeting by a smiling Haku. He was still out of it, and couldn't remember where he was, or how he got there for that matter, but seeing Haku smile like that erased all his worries for the moment. "Hey." He said.

"Hey." She said back.

"What happened? Where am I? How did I get here?" Sasuke asked, still out of it.

"We are currently in Tazuna's house. We brought you here after the battle we had at the bridge." she said softly.

Sasuke's mind went into overdrive and remembered everything that happened. _'Wait a minute! Is she-_

He sat up quickly and had a shocked look on his face as he stared at the ice user.

"Sasuke-kun, what's wrong?" She said, a little worried he would panic.

He looked at her and his eyes started watering. "Your still here…" he said softly.

Haku looked at him worriedly, but her worry quickly became shock and embarrassment as she felt him hugging her fiercely. "Your alive." He chuckled. "You're actually alive! Thank Kami!" He said as he grabbed her arms and jumped up and down in excitement.

She felt herself blush at his enthusiasm "Of course I'm alive Sasuke-kun, and It's all thanks to you. If you wouldn't of taken the hit, that jutsu would've hit me straight at my heart, and I would certainly be dead right now." she said.

Her face softened up after remembering that event. "Sasuke-kun, promise me you won't do something like that again." she said.

Sasuke looked at her and noticed that her eyes had become misty. "Why? Didn't you want to be saved?" He asked remembering how willingly she wanted to die for Zabuza as he battled her at the bridge.

"It's not that, it's just…" she bit her lip. Haku looked up at Sasuke and he suddenly felt her push him down, pinning him there with boht of her hands, surprising him with her brute strength, tears beginning to fall from her brown eyes as she stared down at him. "You almost died yesterday taking that hit. It felt like the day I saw my mom die in front of my eyes. I didn't know what to do. I started panicking and snapped. I don't know what I would do if I see you die again." she said as she leaned down to give him a fierce and desperate kiss on the lips, leaving him barely enough time to kiss her back, before she fully broke down and sobbedinto the crook of his neck, allowing him to sit up.

Sasuke placed his arms around her and whispered sweet reassurances as he tried to calm her down. "Hey, Its alright. Calm down Haku... It took a while for her to actually do so, but once she did, she started falling asleep, her brown eyes getting heavy. He turned around a little bit and placed her in a sleeping position on the bed. He then placed on hand on her cheek and said. "Don't worry Haku, I can't promise that I won't do something like that again, but I WILL promise you that I won't die anytime soon. I guarantee it."

Haku smiled in her sleep and mumbled something that sounded like "Thanks." Sasuke leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead, prompting a small smile from the ice user, as he covered her in blankets and left the room.

--

When Sasuke arrived at the kitchen, He was pleasantly surprised to see Kakashi and Zabuza engaging in an arm wrestling contest. 'It seems that Zabuza is just as competitive as Gai-sensei.' Naruto thought, having remembered the one time he'd seen the two going at it in an arm wrestling bout of their own, at Gai's insistence, the spandex clad jonin claiming that he was FAR superior to Kakashi in terms of brute strength.

And indeed he was. He had won their little contest, nearly breaking the arm of the poor Copycat nin as he won.

Then Sakura's joyful shout interrupted his musings.

"Sasuke-kun! You're awake!" Sakura screamed, as she jumped up from her chair, glad to see that he was alright.

Sasuke shook his current thoughts away and smiled brightly at Sakura, closing his eyes and giving her the peace sign. "Morning Sakura-chan!" he greeted, glad to see that she was alive and well, much like Haku now probably was, thanks to that near death save of his.

Sakura walked towards him, then jumped forward and gave him a big hug, leaning up to give him a fierce kiss on the lips. "Don't scare me like that! You coulda died from that stunt of yours! You nearly gave me a heart attack quite a scare at the bridge!"

Sasuke thought back to what happened at the bridge and let out a stressful sigh, running his hands through her pink hiar as he returned the kiss before speaking to her, his tone apolegetic. "Sorry about that back there. I'll explain to you guys what happened when we get back to Konoha. Just give me a few days to sort things out." he said.

Naruto came into the kitchen and he appeared to be a little shocked to see Sasuke already up and about, but he smirked none the less, a bit of his old personality slipping through. " Take it easy you two. Just get a room will ya?" Sasuke shot Naruto a glare as he had to restrain Sakura from beating the living daylights out of his friend, his look saying it all as he held her under the shoulders. _'Do you WANT to die already? What about Hinata? I don't think she'll still lov eyou if you get killed by Sakura..._

At this, the new Naruto promptly, and wisely shut his yap, focusing his gaze on the new Sasuke as Sakura finally calmed down, and was relased... Giving Naruto a swift bonk on the head the instant she was let go. "HA! That's what you get!" Naruto stuck his tongue out as she walked back over to the Uchiha and rested her head against his chest, his arms wrapping around her waist as the two chatted. "I don't know how you stand her... Anyway, it's been boring around here without you keeping me entertained, teme. When do you think you'll be ready to start sparring again?' he asked as he cracked his knuckles, an slightly eager look on his face.

Sasuke blanched at this, surprised that his rival was still so eager to spar with him, even after that rough battle on the bridge so recently."Easy! I just got up Naruto! Let me see how everybody's doing first!" he said, careful to use his old name for Sasuke.

The new occupant of his body frowned for a moment, before giving a small nod of understanding, keeping up the facade. "Well then hurry up! I'll be at the training at the clearing. Meet me over there whenever you feel ready, unless you're afraid that the 'class loser' might win today." And with that, Naruto left, waving his hand over his head as he walked. "Don't take too long, or I'll drag you there...

Sasuke shook his head, thinking that his friend was actually starting to _enjoy _his new body. Then he and Sakura turned their head as they heard a triumpahnt shout come from Zabuza, and a groan of defeat from Kakashi, drawing their attention back to their arm wrestling match, to see that it was already over. Even though Sasuke missed it, he could tell that Zabuza won the match since he had a satisfied smirk on his face while Kakashi sulked at the other end of the table, hands pulling at his hair in exasperation at his defeat. Then Nzabuza noticed him, and raised his hand in greeting, his now unmaksed face wearing small smile as he saw the Uchiha.

"Hey kid, nice to see you're up and about after that stunt you pulled." Zabuza said as Sasuke walked into their field of vision.

"Yeah, we were getting a little worried about your health." Tsunami said as she walked in with breakfast.

"I'm ok, really. I can see why you guys would worry seeing that I wouldn't wake up, but I just needed the extra sleep to recover. I feel all better now." Sasuke said.

Tsunami gave him a good look and seemed to be satisfied with what she saw, as Sakura sat down at the table and dared Zabuza to actually arm wrestle HER. "Well, are you hungry?"

Sasuke nodded his head sheepishly, his stomach growling beneath his now white version of the Uchiha shirt that the former occupant of the body always wore. "Yeah, I sort of am."

"Well, sit down, I'll go get you your breakfast. I hope you like waffles." Tsunami said, a smile on her kind face.

The white clad Uchiah gave her a smile and a thumbs up."Thanks Tsunami. You rock."

The daughter of Tazuna leaned down and ruffled his black hair, making it stick , now longer resembling the hairstyle of Itachi. "It's no trouble. I can't have my savior running around with an empty stomach, now can I?" she said as she pinched his cheek in a motherly fashion.

Sasuke rubbed his sore cheek and smiled, which made Tsunami chuckle as she headed to the kitchen to prepare his breakfast. "He's such a well mannered boy...

As Sasuek turne dto hungrily eye his breakast, Kakshi drew his attention from it a she waved his hand at the boy from across the table, snapping him out of his food daze. "Sasuke, I need to talk to you. There have been certain "happenings" that have recently come to my attention, and I need some answers from you, pronto." Kakashi said as he got up from the table, dead serious and not kidding around with the raven haired Uchiha, who paled slightly, then attempted to dismiss it as nothing, using an obviosu excuse, that he _prayed _would work.

"Can't I have breakfast first?" Sasuke said, voice filled with weariness, as he began to eat.

"Now Naruto." Kakashi said firmly.

"Alright, Alright! I'm coming!" Sasuke grumbled as he got up from his seat and followed Kakashi outside.

Once they where out far enough, Sasuke began, noticing that they had arrived in the clearing where Naruto was still waiting for him.

"So, what do you want to know?" Sasuke asked.

"Everything you have been keeping a secret from me." Kakashi said firmly. "I've had my suspicions about you for a while because you know several techniques that you shouldn't know at your age. And you seemed to have _dramatically _changed, as far as your personality goes. You've been far less somber these past few days, and in fact you've been almost as cheerful as Naruto here, Sakura can certainly atest to that. At first, I just dismissed them because I thought you learned them at the village somehow, and that you were trying to forget what happened to your clan…" he said matter-of-factly. "…But recently, you have been using strange jutsus that Sakura claims that you taught her and Naruto. And then there's the matter of that demonic chakra of yours..."

"Really?" Sasuke asked feigning shock, while inside he was regretting having shared such high level jutsu now, and the Kyuubi. "What kind of jutsus are we talking about here?"

"I'm talking about the kind that would have been impossible for you to learn without getting a sensei before becoming a Genin, or without getting training from a Sanin. Sakura used a medical technique on us when we where wounded at the bridge, while Naruto managed to use a high level, _Chunin _class fire jutsu. Granted, he does have a lot of chakra, and he _has _expressed interest in fire jutsu of late, but the fact that he told me you taught him this rules the other option out." Sasuek shot Naruto a glare, and the former Uchiha shrugged, having been forced to tell Kakashi, and it CERTAINLY was against his will. "Now, how did you learn these techniques?"

Sasuke contemplated on what to do. 'Should I tell him? I really don't see any other way around it. The problem is, would he believe me? And ho wmuch would this screw up things for me and Naruto?'

Naruto sighed and crossed the distance, looking up at Kakashi, his voice firm, blue eyes full of seriousness. " Sorry sensei. It's something you're not ready to hear yet." Kakashi's eye perked up at this, filled with curiosity.

"Why, are you two-

THAT earned him a kick in the groin from Naruto, and flying bonk on the head from Sasuke, making him double over in pain as the two angrily protested his perverted mind. "NO! NOT THAT YOU PERVERTED TEME!" Then they cooled of almost as quickly as they had become angry, Sasuke finishing for his now blond friend.

"Because its something else. You won't beleive it, so I'm sorry but maybe latter." He then ran as he ran a fast as he could from Kakashi, Naruto following him a moment later.

* * *

The days passed by without many problems. Everyone was enjoying their stay at Tazuna's house and life couldn't get any better. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end. The bridge was finally complete and it was time for team seven to head back home. After they said their long goodbyes, team seven had the honor of being the first people to cross the bridge.

At the other end of the bridge, Two figures where standing there waiting patiently for them.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at seeing them.

"Momochi." Kakashi said

"Hatake" Zabuza replied.

The conversation soon picked up when both of them smirked. "So, have you decided what you're going to do? Despite that near death blow I almost gave you, the offer still stands. We could use a fine shinobi such as yourself."

"Aren't you forgetting someone Hatake?" Zabuza said as he drifted his eyes towards Haku.

"Of course, she is also more than welcome. I doubt Sasuke would have it any other way, he seems to be quite fond of her." Kakashi said as he directed his gaze towards Naruto, a smile evident under his mask.

Sasuke, who was currently having a conversation with Haku, suddenly sneezed.

"Bless you Sasuke-kun." Haku said.

"He-he, sorry about that Haku-chan, I must be getting sick with this weather." He said as he wiped the mucus out of his nose, blowing it into a tissue.

"I thought you said that you never get sick? I distinctly remember you saying something about your 'amazing immune system.'" She teased.

"…Shut up!" he said as he humph-ed for good measure. Haku only giggled at his antics.

"Look at those two." Zabuza said. "I've never seen Haku act so care free with anybody other than me before. It would be a real shame to keep them apart."

Kakashi looked at him quizzically. "Are you saying what I think your saying?"

Zabuza smirked at him. "You are indeed a smart one Hatake. Always looking underneath the underneath, huh?"

Kakashi smiled. "That's what I'm good at. They will be very happy with your decision."

"Let's not tell them yet." Zabuza said as he watched Haku laugh while Sasuke told stories of his old pranks, careful to make sure Sakura didn't hear any of them, not wanting to confuse things even more than they already were. "I wouldn't want to ruin their fun."

Kakashi nodded and smiled at the scene, wishing that days like these would never end.

When Kakashi told team seven about Haku about Zabuza's decision, there were mixed reactions. Sasuke was indifferent about the subject, of course. Sakura was slightly happy because she had gotten close with Haku; however, she was still terrified of Zabuza. Sasuke developed a huge grin on his face and had to visibly restrain himself from jumping up with joy, making Naruto elbow him in the ribs, a rare smile on his new face. "Easy you. You're gonna give us away." Haku, on the other hand, was happy about it, but she still had an uneasy feeling trusting other people.

Sasuke noticed Haku's uneasiness and tried to reassure her. "Oi, Haku-chan, if you're worried about how people will treat you, don't be. The Hokage would never let anything bad happen to you, or Zabuza for that matter. Besides," he paused and he became cheerful, his tone happy as he spoke. "With me around, you two'll be treated like royalty! I'l make sure of that!"

Haku remembered what Naruto told her on the day they met at the clearing. She felt bad for reminding him about how people treated him there, but once she looked at how quickly he became happy, she shrugged off her worries for the moment.

"Sasuke-kun, what's it like to live in your village?" she asked.

Sasuke's smile brightened up instantly. "Well, Konoha is a very lively village compared to the Country of Wave. The streets are often filled with peddlers and busy citizens. There are trees everywhere you turn. We even have those Sakura trees! I'll show you one once we get there, I think you'll like it!"

Haku smiled at him as she reached for his hand, which for some reason, he didn't feel bad holding, it acutally felt pretty nice, her hand in his own, as Sakura came up on his left side, and gently took his hand in her own, surprisingly tolerant of Haku, as the ice user spoke, her tone warm. "I'm looking forward to it." she said.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Haku was feeling a little awkward. She wanted to know something that had been bugging her for a while, so she finally decided to ask. "Sasuke-kun, why did the village hate you?"

Sasuke's happy demeanor fell. "It's not necessarily that they hated me per say, it's more like they feared me for what I had...err... _have_ inside of me." he said, quickly covering up his mistake- _'Jeez! I'm slipping up too much around her!'_

Haku gave him a confused look, as did Sakura. "What do you mean?"

"You of all people should know Haku. Why did people fear you?" he asked.

Haku looked at Sasuke as if realization hit her in her face. "You have something _other _than a Blood-limit?" she asked.

"Well, I wouldn't call my situation a Blood-limit. It's more like a curse for me." He said

Haku and Sakura looked at him as if begging for details. Sasuke sighed in annoyance, he was tired off her eager curiosity, it was REALLY beginningto wear his resolve down, wehn she stared at him with those doe brown eyes of hers. " Fine, I tell you what, I'll let you BOTH know exactly what it is once we set up camp. It will take us more than a day to arrive at Konoha."

Haku looked a little disappointed that the conversation was over, but agreed none the less, Sakura reluctantly nodding her head in agreement, as she ran ahead to chat with Kakashi. "Fine, but no more secrets Sasuke-kun! It makes me feel left out when you keep things from me...

Sasuke sighed, knowing thay he would almost ALWAYS have to keep at least one secret from her. The one of how he became Sasuke, and the old Sasuke became Naruto/a.k.a. himself. _'That's one thing I can NEVER tell her..._

_--_

The rest of the day went by smoothly. They covered a lot of ground and if they keep the same pace, they would arrive at Konoha the next day around noon. Team Seven and Team Zabuza finally decided to set up camp. Haku was waiting all day for this.

Sasuke sat down on the ground next to the fire. Haku, not really worried about how close they where, sat right next to him.

"Well, I'm glad you two are getting along great. I was expecting to give Naruto 'the talk' first, but it seems that I was proven wrong once again by an even MORE unpredictable ninja from Konoha." Kakashi said, voice filled with pleasant amusement as he saw Sasuke acting even more normal than before, as if he had completely put the past with Itachi behind him.

Sasuke and Haku blushed at what Kakashi was implying, causing Haku to scoot back from them a little bit, unknowingly edging her body closer ot Sasuke's, reaching out for his hand and hesitantly taking it in her own, giving him a nervous smile, whic he returned, smiling warmly at her, making her do the same, her nervousness, temporarily gone for the moment. Zabuza laughed at Haku's uneasiness, as he told his own tale.

"Hatake, I don't know about your student, but you shouldn't patronize mine. In fact- he grinned beneath the bandages around his face, as he saw Haku go as stiff as a board, her face pale from what he was about to say. " In fact, I once caught her reading one of those books you carry with you all the time, you know." Zabuza said smirking.

Haku's whole face turned two shades of red, and she shot him an angry glare. "That's enough, Zabuza! You're going to embarass me to death!" she yelled. She felt even more embarrassed now than the time Zabuza actually caught her reading that book, and she practically had steam coming out of her ears from embarrassment, remembering the perverted details of that orange book.

Sakura, who had just arrived with fresh fish with Naruto held in a basket, by the new Uzumaki, grinned widely as she overheard the stroy, and the Haruno simply found the scene hilarious and decided to put her own input. "Haku, I'm shocked!" she said feigning disbelief. "I would have never thought you would be the perverted type."

"Oh kami!" Haku said as she covered her face with her free hand to hide her embarrassment, failing to hide the beet red of her blush. "I didn't know it was THAT type of book, I swear! I just opened it and Zabuza appeared when I began reading the first chapter! I didn't know what kind of book it was I swear it!" she said. Sasuke blushed as well his hand intertwined with the ice user's giving her a gentle squeeze to let her know that he was just as much embarassed as she was, and she squeezed his hand back in response, still as red as a tomato.

Kakashi, Zabuza and Sakura laughed at her excuse, making the two blush even further. Sasuke would've laughed too if he hadn't been too embarrassed about his current situation, but the embarrassed Uchiha just didn't find anything funny about the whole situation, and he was VERY grateful that Naruo chose that moment to interrupt, his voice laced with amusement, and slight annoyance as he walked towards the fire.

"If you don't mind," Nartuo said, as he elbowed Kakashi out of the way, the Jonin falling of off the loge he was sitting on, and landing backward with a loud thud, his book falling out of his hand, and promptly being snatched up by Sasuke, who grinned as he ran up a tree with it, Jonin in hot pursuit as the Uchiha threatened to feed his beloved book to the squirrels, making Zabuza roar with laughter as Haku looked on, a warm smile on her face as she watched Sasuke dance circles around Kakashi, his Sharingan keeping him a step ahead of the pervert as he leapt from branch to branch, Kakashi in his haste to get his book back had forgotten to unveil his own Sharingan eye, which would've made it much easier to get it back.

"I would like to start cooking these fish!


	12. The Truth

**As a note: Naruto is referred to as Sasuke now, and from now on, Sasuke shall be known as Naruto. Does that help you poor confused readers? It better. I'm sick and tired of complaints about this...**

Sasuke laughed as Kakashi finally cornered him against a boulder, his expression murderous. "Give me back my book, or else." Sasuke looked this way and that, a grin still on his face as he saw Haku, a plot forming in his mind. He then made a quick upward motion with his head, and grinned as he saw her bronw eyes widen. Then he HEAVED the book towards her, and roared with laughter as Haku fumbled with the orange book, before finally catching it, then gasping as Kakashi tore towards her. "HEY! I DON'T WANT THIS!" She then promptly tossed it back to Sasuke, who grinned as he caught it in hand once more. "Okay then, lets play keep away! Lets see how long we can keep sensei from getting his precious book back!"

And so the game began, the two tormenting the poor Jonin to no end, as Zabuza fell to the ground, holding his sides as he shook with laughter.

--

Several hours later...

Kakashi dropped to the ground exhausted, and Naruto happily declared that the fish were done, causing Haku and Sasuke to finally end their little game with him, and drop the open book on his face. The two had gotten hungry from playing with him for such a long time, and the fish smelled delicious.

Naruto scooted enough to give Sasuke and Sakura some space to sit around the fire, Haku sitting on his left, while Sakura nuzzled up to him from his right. Too bad for Haku that Sasuke, their hips brushing against each other, his closeness made her think of some inappropriate things she remembered from the book. _'Ah Kami! I'm never going to get that perverted junk out of my head now!'_

Their dinner went by without too much trouble. There was an occasional joke thrown in the conversation, but it wasn't anything too humiliating. After a long while, Haku nudged Sasuke to get his attention. She looked at him with the same pleading eyes that made him remember his conversation with her earlier that day, so he nodded and began.

"Everyone, I got something important to tell you. This is something personal and I hope you will take me seriously, as it involves Naruto too." he said. The Uzumaki stiffened, realizing what he was about to say. _'Dobe! What are you thinking?!'_

Everyone tensed at his tone of voice. They haven't heard him talk this seriously in a while. "What is it Naruto?" Sakura asked as she saw he look on his face, the poor genin filled with tenSion now. He gave her a quick glance and mumbled that it was nothing, but not before he shot 'Sasuke' a nasty glare, one that said if this went sour, he was dead meat. Sasuke took a deep breath, and began to speak.

"You all remember what happened at the bridge right? You know, when I suddenly had a surge of red chakra enveloped me." He asked.

Sakura sat up straighter to give him her full attention. She had asked Sasuke about this a few days ago and he had said he would explain later.

"Yeah, we all remember what happened after that. You and Haku slaughtered all of Gatou's men. And ya did a pretty damn good job" Zabuza said.

Naruto looked deadpanned now at that. "I am sorry you all had to witness me in that state. I do not like to kill people, but sometimes it is necessary to do so in order to protect those who are precious to you."

Haku felt her heart skip a beat, her face turning a pale pink as she rested her head against his shoulder. _'He considers me one of his precious people._' she thought. Her lips curved up a little at the thought, as she he turned his head to rest it against hers, briefly nuzzling his nose against hers, before pulling away and going on.

"Well, the reason I mention this is because I'm pretty sure you guys are wondering what the hell that was, am I correct?" Sasuke got four nods and one stoic face. '_Ha, same old Kakashi._' Sasuke said as he mentally smirked at his impassiveness.

"I'm going to have to backtrack a few years in order for you guys to understand. Only 'Naruto 'knows about this story, but I need to make sure Haku, Zabuza, and the rest of you know it in order for them to get a clear view of what happened." There were a few seconds of silence before Sasuke began.

"About twelve years ago, in the great village of Konoha, a great tragedy occurred. Sometime during the month of October, one of the great demons that roam the earth violently attacked the village. This demon was known as the great Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest one out of nine demons. It is said that one of its tails had enough power to cause tsunamis and crumble mountains. Our people fought bravely to defend themselves, but even with all of our shinobi forces, we didn't have enough power to bring the beast down."

Naruto noticed everyone was paying attention, and he dreaded waht was coming. _'Oh man, oh man, oh man!'_"What our generation were taught during the academy was that our Forth Hokage had found a way to kill the demon, at the cost of his own life. This is not necessarily true."

Sakura perked up at this. "What do you mean Sasuke-kun ?" asked Sakura, beginning to fear where Sasuke was heading with the story.

"It is true that the Fourth Hokage gave up his life for the sake of the village, but you need to understand that demons are immortal. He did the best thing he could think of in order to ensure the village safety. He sealed the demon away."

Sakura let out a sigh of relief. "Thank kami. I thought that the demon would still be running around loose somewhere."

It seems that everyone except Sakura had figured out what Sasukewas trying to say, so 'Naruto' told her the simple dreaded truth, Haku stammering out a reply before he spoke.

"N-Naruto, don't tell me The Fourth…" Haku began.

Everyone was looking at Naruto with fear, hoping that their intuition wasn't correct.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked as she noticed his look of horror. She then noticed everyone except Kakashi looking at Naruto with fear. "What's going on? Why are you guys looking at him like that?" she asked.

"Sakura," Naruto said, "The Fourth sealed the Kyubi inside him."

Sakura's eyes widened with horror. "N-No way! That can't be true!" She yelled as her body started trembling with fear. "W-Why would he seal that creature In a h-human?!"

Sasuke closed his eyes to clear away everyone's look of horror as he held up a hand for silence, jerking his head towards Sasuke, motioning for him to stand next to him. " Let me finish. There is one last secret you all have to know. A secret that 'Naruto' and I have been keeping quiet for several days now. Everyone but Haku blanched, causing Naruto angrily stamp his foot. "FOR PETES SAKE! GET THAT PERVERTED CRAP OUTTA YOUR MINDS!" He then looked to Sasuke, and they both closed their eyes, opening them a moment later. Revealing both of their Sharingan.

Now everyone gasped as the truth was spoken, by them, as some red chakra leaked out around Sasuke, as he revealed his fangs, whisker marks appearing on his face, his eyes becoming red and slitted briefly, giving them all a long good look, before releasing the dark energy. "Now, I know you guys won't believe this, but the truth is...I'm not Sasuke. I was Naruto." Now the REAL Sasuke spoke up, as he lifted his shirt, exposing the bare flesh of his stomach, the seal no longer there. "And I'm not Naruto, I was Sasuke."

Then they spoke in perfect unison, their voices overlapping earily as he admitted an unspoke fact to all of them. "And I'm pretty damn happy as who I am now."

Kakashi looked at the two, and everything finally fell into place. The different personalities, the strange behavior, the knowledge of high ranked jutsu, it all made sense. But he couldn't believe it. "S-So, the Kyuubi is in-

Sasuke stiffly nodded, dead serious now. "In me. But I can assure you, he won't be getting out. I just borrow his chakra when I really need it, like before, when I almost died." Sakura however, was a mix of emotion. Shock, at the stunning truth. Betrayal at being lied to. And overall confusion. But she did know one thing. This knew Sasuke had been kind to her, he had been loving and protective. The fact that it was really Naruto all along made little difference to her now, that she had found someone so caring. But she was now afraid of Sasuke/ a.ka. Naruto, and instinctively pulled away from the blond, fearful of him.

Naruto's blue eyes narrowed as the sun set, darkness falling now, his voice firm as he explained himself. "Sakura, you have to understand," Naruto began as his voice began to crack as he remembered the tale he had been told by the former owner of this body. "Everybody was dying. He would do anything to save the few people who where lucky enough to stay alive. He needed to seal the demon on a newborn child because it was the only thing capable of holding a demon with so much power. This body just happened to be born on October 10, making Naruto the lucky candidate." Once again, he pulled up his shirt, and jabbed a finger at it, eyes filled with sadness now. "Do you have any IDEA how much Hell this body, NARUTO'S body went through? Do you?"

Everyone was dead quiet. Naruto was expecting something like this to happen, but no matter how much he was expecting it, it still hurt to see his precious people look at him with such fear. Then Sakura took a deep breath, and turned to Sasuke

" Sas- He glared at her angrily, tone firm. "No. That's not my name anymore." So she tried again, stammering out his new name."N-Naruto." Sakura began. "I-Is there any c-chance for it to e-escape from your body?" She asked, fearful of what may happen if it did, not wanting to make him angry now.

Naruto stayed quiet for a few seconds before answering. He let out a depressing laugh before looking at Sakura with bloodshot eyes. "You don't know how many times I almost got killed because of that very question Sakura. People where willing to kill me, this body to make sure Kyuubi had no chance to escape from my body. And they'll just go after my old body if they find out he's in it. And I won't wish that hell on Naruto's new body, my FORMER body. So I will endure. I won't let them hurt me. I'll fight back, and win. That'll teach em."

Everyone, including Kakashi, had widened their eyes in shock after hearing this. Sakura got up from where she was sitting and knelt down where Naruto was, hugging him slowly. "Naruto…" she said as tears fell from her eyes. "…I didn't know how bad your life has been." she said as she hugged him tighter. "I'm sorry for ever hurting you."

Naruto returned the hug. "It's ok Sakura. Don't worry about it." He chuckled lightheartedly as he patted her back. "At least you hated me for being me." he said.

She chuckled lightly too. Everyone else just looked on at the scene. A few where a little jealous, but other than that, they where happy at how close they where now.

Sakura gave Naruto a quick friendly peck on the cheek before she went to sit down next to Sasuke once more. This caused two people to get more than just a little jealous, but both didn't make any comment.

Zabuza studied Naruto quietly. "So kid, are you saying that the power we felt at the bridge was that of the Nine tails?" He asked.

Sasuke turned his attention to Zabuza speaking for his friend. "That is correct. Whenever I'm about to die, Kyuubi gives me some of his power to help me survive, for if I die, he dies. I can usually control his power, but there are times in which I have to struggle to keep control."

"Naru- er...Sasuke, how long have you known about this?" Kakashi asked surprisingly calm, despite.

Sasuke made eye contact with him before answering. "I've known about this the day before we graduated."

"So that means…oh, Sasuke-kun." Haku said as she looked down in a desperate attempt to control her emotions.

"Yeah." Sasuke said, "That means that I didn't even know why everyone hated me so much until recently, and right now, I'm praying to god that no one else finds out about our switch."

Naruto narrowed his blue eyes now as they flashed into Sharingan. "When I find out who tried to hurt you, they are going to wish that they were dead." his tone was dead serious as he got up and walked into the forest.

"Naruto! Wait!" Sakura yelled as she followed to comfort him.

Naruto looked up at their retreating forms. "Should we leave them alone for a while?" he asked.

"I think we all need to have some time alone to sort things out." Kakashi said. "You want to keep first watch?" he asked.

"Sure." Naruto said.

"Alright, I'm going to get some shuteye, wake me up in two hours." Kakashi said as he left toward his tent.

Zabuza looked at the two kids in front of him. Haku was still clinging tightly against Sasuke and he inwardly smirked. "I might as well get some sleep too. Don't stay up too late Haku, your going to need your rest." and with that, he left towards his tent.

"…Sasuke-kun." Haku said after a long silence. "You and I are a lot alike you know. Both of us where shunned because of something the villagers didn't understand. Both of us had people who tried to kill us. Both of us don't have any parents anymore. But most importantly…" she said as she hugged him tighter. "Both of us know the feeling of being truly alone. I never want to feel like that again."

Sasuke massaged her back with his hand. "You don't have to worry about that anymore. You will always have Zabuza to take care of you." Sasuke said making Haku felt a little relieved, even though that wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear. But then he continued: "Plus, if he's not enough, you can always count on me to be there when you need me. Believe it.".

This was exactly what she wanted to hear. She let a tear of happiness fall down her cheek and cuddled with Sasuke, who gave her a brief kiss on the forehead, drawing a warm smile from the ice user. The two then yawned as the Uchiha's gaze fell on the nearby sleeping bag that was his, and reached out with his free hand, pulling the tow of them into it, as Haku shifted her body, resting her hips against his, as her head fell on his chest, and the two drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

--

Morning came pretty quickly for team seven and team Zabuza. And Sasuke wa sin for quite the surprise when he awoke to see Haku's brown eyes staring down at him. She had somehwo rolled onto his chest during the night. A smile lit her face, and she nuzzled her nose against his, happy to see him awake, just after she awoke herself...

When everyone was assembled Naruto had a few things he needed to take care of.

"Morning everyone!" He said with a bright smile. He got a lot of sleepy grumbles as a response. He laughed a little.

"I know, I know. It's still early, but I need to get some things out." he said. "First of all, I need to apologize for what happened last night. I needed to get that out of the way so you guys know exactly what to expect the next time something like that happens." he got a bunch of nods. "Okay then! Lets get going!" And everyone promptly wne tback to bed.

It was safe to say that because of this, they arrived at Konoha a little later than they expected. Once they identified themselves, the guards let them pass through the gates.

Haku was impressed at how beautiful the village looked. Everything seemed peaceful and busy at the same time. There where children playing without a care in the world while some peddlers set up their carts to start their business.

Zabuza looked around without a hint of an expression. "Hatake, Is your village always this carefree? There's hardly any security around, if at all."

"Don't worry about that." Kakashi said. "Even though it doesn't look it, this village is very well guarded. You'll know what I mean once you get settled in."

"…Right." Zabuza said.

Kakashi looked at his team. "Well guys, you are free to go. I'll give my report to the Hokage while getting these two settled in." he said.

Naruto didn't waste anytime with formalities and just took of in the direction of the Hyuuga compound, glad to be back, and eager to see Hinata and ATTEMPT to ask her out. In other words, he was gone pretty darn fast. Sakura bowed to her sensei and team Zabuza before she gave Sasuke a quick kiss on the cheek, then headed for home, waving to Sasuke as she vanished into the crowd of people.

"Well," Sasuke said. "I guess this is goodbye for now. If you need me for anything, you know how to reach me." He said as he pointed to his right hand. "See you later!" he said as he turned and started walking.

"Sasuke-kun wait!" Haku said as she walked towards him. Naruto turned around and raised an eyebrow. "What is it Haku-chan?" He asked.

Haku closed the gap between them and hugged him fiercely, giving him a quick kiss of her own, making him blush as her lips pressed against his for a brief moment, then she pulled away, face a bright pink as she spoke. "Promise to keep in touch?" she asked.

Sasuke returned the hug, then gave her a kiss of his own, his hands lowering themselves to her waist, and holding her in place briefly as she he kissed her, WITHOUT the influence of the Kyuubi. And he had to admit, demonic chakra or not, it still felt pretty darn good. "Yeah, you can count on it." he said.

Haku reached up and quickly pecked him on his cheek now much like Sakura had, causing him to get a slight blush before smiling at her.

"I'll be seeing you." Haku said as she waved him goodbye.

When Haku got near Zabuza, his careful gaze on her caused her to get a small tint of red on her cheeks.

"What the hell was that Haku?" he said playfully.

"Well…you know…just saying goodbye." She said as her whole face reddened a bit.

Zabuza smiled behind his mask. "…Right. " he turned his attention towards Kakashi. "Hatake, lead the way."

"Yep." He said as he pulled out his evil orange book and started walking towards the Hokage's office, the two new leaf nin following after him.


	13. The Nightmare and the Return

Once they arrived at the office, Haku had begun to feel nervous, and she tented her finger for what seemed like the millionth time now, still very afraid of how they would treat her, seeing as how Naru-er...Sasuke was treated.

Kakashi was just finishing his report, and she looked up from staring at her feet as he finished, nervously waiting for what the Hokage would say. "…and so, they decided to join our village provided that you are willing to take them in, and not press any charges against the two of them for our...misunderstanding in the land of Waves."

The Hokage took a puff of smoke from his pipe, the smoke slowly rising in the air as his gaze focused on the former Mist Jonin now. " You are Momochi Zabuza, I presume?" he said.

Zabuza looked at him and smirked, the smile showing beneath his face wrappings, as he crossed his arms over his black muscle shirt, defiantly stubborn as ever. "If you expect me to bow old geezer, than you can forget it. You're going to have to _earn_ my respect."

The Hokage narrowed his eyes at him, serious now. "I see that your reputation speaks for itself. Very well, let's not linger with formalities and get things started, shall we?" he asked. Zabuza remained stoic remaining motionless as the Hokage spoke.

"Momochi Zabuza, you have been known to commit a crime in which this case I cannot ignore. During your time in the Village of the Mist, you and your men attempted to assassinate the Mizukage, am I correct?"

"That you are, what of it?" He asked, seemingly not caring about such a thing.

"Can you explain to me why you would try such a thing?" was Sarutobi's instantaneous reply, causing Zabuza to uncross his arms, and gestur to his mist headband, which he then chucked to the floor, emphasizing the point of what he was about to say.

"I didn't like how things where run there. That pig of a Mizukage didn't value any of his men's lives. He just threw us out like trash when we were no longer useful to him. This was clearly shown by the way he graduated his fellow shinobi. Instead of supporting each other, students had to fight each other to the death, regardless of whether they wanted to or not. This form of teaching only created emotionless weapons, who are good for nothing but killing and more death. I was so brainwashed by these teachings that I even killed every single one of my classmates, thinking this would make me a better shinobi. And I never once valued a person's life until I met Haku. I wanted to change the way the hidden village of mist was run to make a new home for her one day, should that pig of a man ever be kicked out of office." Zabuza said.

Sarutobi analyzed Zabuza trying to find something that would tell him he was lying. He couldn't find anything. Sarutobi then focused his attention towards Haku.

"I understand that both of your parents have passed away a few years back, am I correct?" he asked.

Haku bowed, "Yes Hokage-sama. I was born and raised on a snowy region in the Land of Water. There were many civil wars during my childhood, and since people with blood-limits where often used as weapons, many people feared them. My mother was one of those who possessed a blood-limit, and passed the trait down to me. When my Father found out about it, he gathered a mob to come get us. He successfully killed my mother, but when he tried to kill me, I accidentally triggered my blood-limit and killed the whole mob, including my father." She said a little choked up remembering her past.

"I can see that you have had a difficult life child, unfortunately, there are many like you who have similar past." Sarutobi said.

Sarutobi gathered a few papers from his desk before continuing. "It is my understanding that Zabuza has been your guardian since he has found you, correct."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi turned his attention towards Zabuza. "Momochi Zabuza, are you willing to continue caring for her well being until she becomes of legal age?"

"Not just until then, old man, I will continue to care for her whenever she needs me." Zabuza said.

Sarutobi smiled. "Good answer." He said as he signed a couple of papers. "Congratulations, as of today, both of you are now Shinobi of the Leaf. You will be tested on your skills to see what rank is best to place you. Take these forms over to the administration office to get officially signed up. Now before you leave…" Sarutobi said as he looked inside one of his filing cabinets. He grabbed a couple of forms and gave it to Zabuza.

"What's this?" He asked.

"Those are forms to make you Haku's Legal Guardian. Once those are filled out, she will officially bear your family's name."

Haku's eyes widened at the news, her voice filled with stunned awe now. "I'll be a Momochi?"

Zabuza smiled and ruffled her hair, a fatherly geture that did not go unoticed by Sarutobi. "You've always been one kid. The only difference is that you'll have ID to prove it."

Haku slowly walked towards Zabuza and hugged him softly. "Thanks, Zabuza-sama."

Sarutobi smiled at them, enjoying hte wamr and fuzzy moment.

Kakashi was enjoying it to, but there was buisness to attend to. "I'm sorry to break up the moment here, but I have a request, Hokage-sama."

Zabuza turned around and eyed him. "How long have you been there Kakashi?" he asked, having forgotten that the Jonin had been there the entire time.

Kakashi sweat-dropped before answering. "I never left, Momochi. Don't you remember me giving my report a few minutes ago?"

It was Zabuza's turn to sweat-drop now, and he embarrassedly scratched the back of his head now. "…Right. Haku, let's get going. We still need to find out how well we do on the exams."

"Hai, Zabuza!" Haku replied cheerily as she followed Zabuza out the door.

Sarutobi chuckled a bit. "My my, quite a busy day, don't you agree? Now, what can I help you with Kakashi?"

"Hokage-sama, I would like to request a mission to bring both Tsunade and Jiraiya back to Konoha."

Sarutobi looked up at Kakashi with surprise, but quickly shook it off and put on his professional attitude. "I must ask why you would want them here so suddenly Kakashi. I'm not saying I wouldn't want them here either, but I need to know why you would make such a request."

"Well, with the upcoming Chunnin exams, I think it would be wise to have a medic-nin with Tsunade-sama's vast knowledge. You never know how seriously some of the students might get hurt."

"I can see the reasoning behind that, I will consider it." He said truthfully. "You don't have to worry about Jiraiya, he has promised me that he will arrive to see the final matches of the Chunnin exams._ 'and give me some information of a certain group.'_ he added in thought.

"Hai, this will only make things that much easier." Kakashi said. "So can I expect a search party?" he asked.

Sarutobi thought about it for a while. "Very well. I will arrange a search party as soon as possible." he said.

"Arigato Hokage-sama." Kakashi bowed before using Shunshin no Jutsu to leave.

Sarutobi sighed before he rubbed his eyebrows. '_I'm getting way too old for this. I need to start considering who could replace me in a few more years.'_ With that line of thought, Sarutobi reluctantly began looking over his stack of paperwork.

* * *

Sarutobi was having one of the most uneventful days he ever had, now that the paperwork was done. 'It's so boring. I can't believe I'm thinking this, but I wish I at least have some paperwork to do.' he sighed and started tapping on his desk with his fingers.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head._ 'Maybe I could…'_ he shook his head. "No, I shouldn't be doing that here." he said aloud. He looked towards the left to see if anyone was there, nothing. He looked towards the right, also nothing. He couldn't feel anybody's chakra signature besides his guards outside the door.

He started contemplating if he should do it. '_Ah, what the hell. It's not like there's anything else to do.'_ he thought. Sarutobi reached into his filing cabinet and pulled out a book that looked remarkably like Kakashi's.

'_What page was I on last time. Hmm…Ah yes! Here we go!'_ he thought as he found the exact spot he stopped reading a few weeks before. As soon as he began to read, one of his guards appeared right through the door.

"Hokage-sama!" The guard yelled.

Sarutobi face faulted before addressing the guard, none too happy about the intrusion. "Damn it Izumo! How many times do I have to tell you to knock first?!"

Kotetsu, the other guard, snickered at his friend's dilemma.

"Gomennasai, Hokage-sama, but the search party you sent out a few hours ago has arrived." Izumo said.

Saurtobi raised an eyebrow at this. '_They found her already? That sure was fast I expected it to at least take a day.'_ he thought.

"Alright, send them in." he ordered.

"Hai Hokage-sama!" Izumo said before bowing.

Once he saw Izumo come out of the room, Ketetsu addressed the search party. "The Hokage is ready to see you now, you may enter." he said.

"Arigato." said a jounin with a senbon in his mouth. "Everyone, follow me." he said before all of the people in his party followed him in.

"Ah, Genma, Hayate, it's nice to see you earlier than expected." Sarutobi said.

" Lord Hokage!" Both of them said in union before bowing deeply.

"Geez, Sarutobi-sensei, you sure like to keep them under your thumb." A young woman said, as she walked in behind the two humble Jonin.

"Tsunade, it's nice to see you again! I was wondering if you where actually going to accept my request." Sarutobi said with a smile.

"Don't get me wrong old man." She said. "I only intend to stay here until the Chunnin exams are over. Think of it as a favor for letting me take Shizune with me." she said, as she crossed her arms stubbornly.

Sarutobi sighed in annoyance as he ran a hand over what little hair he had left on his wrinkled head. " Come now Tsunade, I really wish you would stay here longer than that. Your medic skills are needed here more than you might know."

Tsunade just snorted at that and looked the other way, not caring one bit about that. "Bah."

"Hokage-sama. I would like to help out in any way possible while I'm here. I will be at your service if you need me." Shizune said as she bowed to him, shooting Tsunade an annoyed glare for being so disrespectful towards the Hokage.

Sarutobi smiled, pleased to see that the young woman still had some manners. "Very well Shizune. I'll let you know when I have something lined up for your expertise." Now Tsunade deigned to speak again, uncrossing her arms and placing her hands down on the desk palms open and pressed against the wood as she spoke, holding back a yawn before she did so

"Sensei, I know your glad to see me again and what-not, but I really wanna get some rest." She then shot Genma an annoyed glare, which he returned, unwilling to back down from the hotheaded Sanin, ignoring her as she spoke, tone derisive and jeering towards the two." Plusm these two lackeys of your's didn't waste any time bringing us back, if you know what I mean."

Sarutobi chuckled as Hayate stifled a cough, muttering a curse under his breath as he did so, and lucky for him, it went undetected by Tsunade, who was still locked in a staring contest with Genma, neither of them blinking. "Yes, I am very surprised they managed to find you so fast. I was expecting them to last longer than three days."

Genma and Hayate developed smirks on their faces. "Well, when you send the best of the best, what else could you expect, Hokage sama?" Genma said in a "little too cocky for his own good" voice.

Sarutobi smiled. "Indeed."

Tsunade's eyebrow started twitching. "Sensei?!" she said rather threateningly.

The old man laughed at her firey temper. She was still the same hothead as all those years ago."Oh all right. You may all leave if you don't have anything else to report." Sarutobi said.

Tsunade smiled sweetly at him and bowed. "Arigato Sensei. I'll be looking forward to seeing you in the exams. " she said before turning her attention to her disciple, who smiled shyly under the glare of her master. "Shizune, come on! We're going!" she said.

Shizune jumped up at her tone of voice and followed Tsunade obediently, looking over her shoulder as they left, her hand oddly close to Tsunade's, the Sanin turning and glaring at Hayate and Genma, who were gving them questioning looks, and the evil deaht stare silenced the two, both of them leaving as soon as they finished paying their respect to the Hokage.

Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe and sighed, deciding to leave Tsunade's personal affairs be, for his own safety. She REALLY didn't like it when people pried into her personal life... He blushed a little bit before picking up his book. _'Now where was I?'_

--

Naruto grumbled under his breath as he began to doze under the stars, talking in his sleep, unaware of Hinata sitting in the tree above him, having hidden up there for some time now. "Jeez, I had no idea the old Naruto used to have it so rough...

He had no luck finding Hinata, although he HAD heard that she was going to be here at night, he still was unable to to find her, having instead had seen the mob waiting back at his house, and despite the whoopings he now gave his tormentors, some of them still persisted in trying to go through with their usual routine of _trying _to kill him.

And five minutes later, to make things worse, he was having a nightmare.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata said as she shook him lightly. Naruto was tossing and turning on the floor, sweating profusely while mimbling the name Itachi over and over again, with a few incoherent words thrown in here and there. "Naruto-kun, wake up please! You're having a nightmare!"

Hinata couldn't take it anymore. She reached back and slapped him Tsunade style, hard on his cheek, effectively waking him up, and snapping him out of it.

Naruto sat up quickly and looked around at his surroundings. He noticed that he wasn't near Grass Country anymore. It looked like he was at his old training grounds. When he met a pair of worried lavender eyes, his breathing became heavy.

"Naruto-kun, what's the matter?" Hinata asked seriously worried. She had never seen Naruto panic in her life, and it was scaring the crap out of her.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. With his reminder of how Hinata died that day, and seeing her here with a worried expression was too much for him to take, Itachi still tormented him in his dreams. He laid down on the floor, covered his face with his arm and started crying.

Hinata was overwhelmed by his display. Acting on her maternal instincts, she reached down and pulled him up into a hug. "Naruto-kun, calm down. It was only a bad dream. Everything is fine now, you don't have to worry." She said as she rubbed her hand in circles on his back.

It took a few more minutes for Naruto to calm down enough for them to separate. After they did, both of them felt a little awkward.

Naruto was the first to break the silence. "Sorry, Hinata-chan. For troubling you." He said.

"It's alright Naruto-kun, it was no trouble at all. I'm glad that I was able to help." she said a little timidly. There where a few more minutes of silence until Hinata decided to ask something.

"Ano, Naruto-kun. What where you doing sleeping out here? Shouldn't you be at your apartment by now?"

Naruto thought about that for a minute. "Well, you know how I usually train for hours right? I must have fallen asleep here when I decided to look at the stars. Besides, my place isn't exactly what I call home anyway." He said. "What about you?"

"Huh? Me?" she asked.

"Yeah. What where you doing before you woke me up?"

"Ano, my team and I had just finished our training for the day, so we all decided to go eat together. After we ate, we all separated and headed towards our home. Along the way, I happen to notice you laying down here and I came to check up on you to see if you were ok." she said.

"I see. I must have been really tired for me to just doze off like that." Naruto said with a sheepish grin.

Hinata giggled. '_I'm glad he's feeling better'_ she thought.

Naruto stood up and extended his arm to Hinata. "Well, judging by how dark it is, it must be pretty late and I'm sure your father is worried. Come on, I'll walk you home." he said

Hinata blushed a bit before taking his hand. They walked side by side is a comfortable silence. They made a few comments here and there, but it was mainly irrelevant. Soon they arrived at the compound gate.

"Well, we're here." Naruto said.

Hinata was a little reluctant to leave him, but knowing his father would be worried sick, she decided not to delay her absence any longer, and reluctantly headed for the gate, casting a glance over her shoulder as she did so.

"Thank you for your accompanying me Naruto-kun. I must get going." Hinata said.

Naruto nodded his head, mentally cursing himself for not asking her out. "No problem. I enjoyed talking with you tonight." He said before he started to leave.

Hinata stopped halfway through the gate contemplating on saying something. "Naruto-kun, wait." she said.

Naruto stopped on his tracks. "Yes?" he asked.

Hinata started playing with her fingers. "I-If you ever n-need someone to t-talk to, you can always count on me t-to be there for you." she said shyly.

Naruto looked at her with one of his sincere smiles. "Arigato Hinata-chan. I'll keep that in mind." he said.

Hinata smiled at him one last time before she headed towards the Hyuuga compound, and she was about to enter the gate when Naruto finally worked up the courage, running up to her before he could chicken out. "OI! Hinata-chan! Hold on a second!"

The Hyuuga slowly turned around, a slightly eager expression on her face. "Y-yes Na-Naruto-kun?" Naruto held up a finger now, and took in a deep breath, before rapidly blurting the words out, sounding like: "Iwaswonderingifyoudliketogooutonadatewithmebutsitsokayifyousayno!" Now Hinata cocked her head to one side, not having heard a word he said. "W-what? I didn't hear a word you-

Naruto took another deep breath, and reached out for her hand, ignoring the beet red blush on his face, noticing that Hinata had turned just as red at the touch. _'He's-He's holding my hand!' _She felt the wave of dizziness hit her, but she fought her blush off with all her might, controlling it to a pale pink, making Naruto relax a bit, and say the first thing that came to his mind. "Gee Hinata, you look really cute when you blush like-

Then his brain caught up with his mouth, and he slapped his free hand over it, as red as a tomato now, while Hinata's face was a bright pink, scarcely believing the words that had just come out of his mouth. _'He thinks I'm cute?' _Then she realized that that was a good thing, and a smile lit up her face as she giggled. _'He thinks I'm cute! Yes!'_

Then, something made her look over her shoulder, and she held back a gasp as she saw her cousin, Neji sitting atop of the gate, a small smile on his face, waving his hand for her to go on as she saw him. Then before she could say or do anything, he backflipped off of the gate and out of sight. Then she turned back to Naruto, a small smile on her face as he said it slowly. "Hinata, do you wanna...go out with me?"

And she promptly fainted, a smile on her face as she shouted one word before she passed out. "YES!"

sighed. '_I wish I could tell you Hinata, but there are some things that are better left unsaid.'_ he thought.


	14. Drinking Problem

Meanwhile Sasuke was walking towards his apartment in silence, deep in thought. He had just realized that there where many drunk citizens during this time of night, and he did his best to ignore their hurtful comments. However, there was one comment that he couldn't ignore.

"Nawaki…whas u doin up at dis time of night?" a woman said as she came closer to him. Naruto was shocked at what he saw.

"T-Tsunade?" he said, startled to see one of the sanin back here in the village .

She slapped him across the head for no reason. "Who you callin grany…I'm nod thas old." she slurred.

Sasuke eyed her warily for a few seconds, and judging by the way she looked, she was shit-faced drunk. How did she think _he _looked like Nawaki? And who the hell was that? "Your drunk, aren't you?" he asked in a deadpanned tone.

She laughed at that and ruffled his hair, making him frown as it stood on end (It now resembles Ishida's hairstyle, but more spiky, and black). "I'm nod drunk Nawaki, I'm just a lil tipsy." she said as she swayed back and forth.

Sasuke rubbed his forehead with his fingers. Sarutobi had told him about the sanin, his three students, but it would seem that he had forgotten to mention Tsunade's drinking problem. '_Oh boy, she's hammered. I need to take her somewhere safe before someone takes advantage of her..._

"Tsunade baa-chan, where did you leave Shizune? You know, your student?" Sasuke asked. He got slapped across the head again, and he didn't like it one bit, as she drunkenly scolded him.

"I tolds you I'm nod thas old! Call me Oneechan." She said happily towards the end, as she beamed blearily at him.

This was getting REALLY tiresome. "Alright! Just stop hitting me!" Sasuke hissed, as he rubbed his red forehead, which urt like HELL now, from those two hits. Tsunade pinched his cheek lovingly instead, and while he didn't like that either, it was better than getting bonked on the head. "Now, why don't yoo run along home and I'll bring you somthin special, okay?" She said as she tried to walk away-

Sasuke grabbed her hand and looked at her. "Tsunade." He said becoming serious. "Where's Shizune?"

Tsunade tried to think, but with all the alcohol in her system, it was a rather difficult task for her to do.

"Shizzunay…I think shez with that Genma guy at za bar. Why? Does my little brother have a crush on her?' she said smiling playfully.

Sasuke sighed audibly. "Ok, follow me…Oneechan." he added that as an afterthought, so he wouldn't get walloped again. He felt just a little weird calling her that since she thinks he's her real brother, but he put that aside for now, as he led her down the streets.

"Wher are yoo takin me Ototo?" Tsunade asked.

"Just follow me, we're almost there." Sasuke said.

Tsunade felt the whole world spinning as she followed the Uchiha. She had to stop a couple of times to regain her balance. Once she was led into a house, she laid back on the wall for support.

"Where ar wee Ototo?" She asked.

"We are at my house." Came his calm reply as he grabbed her arm again and led her to his bed. "Here, sit down and drink this." He said as he handed her a few hangover pills and some water.

After she drank the pills, she grabbed Sasuke and hugged him fiercely, making him stiffen in surprise, as she nearly squeezed the life out of him before loosening her grip enough to allow him to breath again. He heard a couple of sobs before he decided to look at her. "Ototo…" she said as her eyes started to water. "…I missed yoo so much!" At this point, Tsunade was looking at him with tears in her eyes as her hand started rubbing his cheek.

Sasuke was stunned. Judging by the way she was acting, this 'Nawaki' must have looked like his old body, a.k.a. Naruto. But HOW on earth did she think that he looked like her little brother now?

Perhaps she could see what he HAD looked like, because she was drunk? He couldn't be certain either way. And now, he didn't know exactly what he should do. He wanted to tell her he wasn't her brother, but seeing her broken down like this was too much for him. He really cared for her like if she was his real sister, so he did the only thing he could do. He hugged her back.

Tsunade started to cry on him, but he didn't let that stop him from comforting her. He could see that she was still troubled by her past, (yeah, he's been quite the sneaky one, sneaking into the archives of the Konoha library) and needed someone there to help.

"Hey…it's alright. I'm here now, there's nothing to worry about." Sasuke said, trying his best to reassure her. It seemed to be working because Tsunade's crying was starting to calm down into gentle sobs. Pretty soon after that. Those sobs died down all together and all that was left was a light breathing. Sasuke set her down on his bed gently and covered her up.

_'I hope you remember all of this tomorrow Tsunade baa-chan, otherwise I'm screwed.'_Sasuke thought. Sasuke took off his jacket to use it as a pillow and laid down on the floor right across from his bed. Sasuke remembered exactly what day tomorrow was, and rolled his eyes in exasperating. He sighed in annoyance as well, realizing that it was 'Naruto's' birthday tomorrow._ 'Tomorrow's going to be a long day.'_

--

Naruto shook Hinata gently, trying to wake her up after she fainted so suddenly. "Meh. At least I got a yes out of her before she passed out...

Then as he spoke, her pale eyes opened blearily, and he let out a relieved sigh as she hazily smiled up at him. "So about that date...

"T-Tomorrow?"

He nodded once. "Yeah, tomorrow for sure."


End file.
